Udaya Gammanpila, the leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumya, says that although he announced to the cabinet on October 26, 2020 that an economic crisis is coming, no one took it into account.
In view of the crisis, he stated that the import of non-essential goods should be restricted in order to save dollars for the import of essential materials such as fuel, medicine, coal and gas, but the proposal was rejected, he added.
He further said that in February 2021, one cabinet paper pointing out the need for a cost-represented price system for fuel and another cabinet paper proposing the 2021 fuel rationing system were presented, but both proposals were not implemented due to the opposition of the then Finance Minister Mr. Basil Rajapaksa. .
Gammanpila further mentioned that his proposals which were rejected then had to be implemented as a solution to the crisis after Gotabhaya Rajapaksa lost his presidency due to a huge economic crisis in the country. The Gammanpila councilor mentioned this while joining the Sirasa Battle program.