"If the President foresaw the crisis in the country, why was it so late to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?" asked SJB Parliamentarian Dr. Harsha de Silva.

"Although he appreciated the President's decision to negotiate with the IMF to devise a methodology to repay the loans, he said that if the decision had been taken then, the people would not have had to suffer in this manner," he said, responding to President Gotabhaya Rajapksa's address to the nation.

De Silva also said, "If such a crisis was foreseen, why did they lose about 600 billion rupees a year in tax revenue by slashing taxes in order to gain political popularity? The beginning of the crisis was the massive collapse of government revenue in Sri Lanka, the country with the lowest government revenue in the world."

"If, as you say, the crisis was foreseen, why was it advised to control the rupee artificially? Did you know that the country lost about $ 4 billion in revenue as a result? Mr. President, about $ 1.5 billion was burned to protect the rupee. Also, the country lost about US $ 2.5 billion in remittances due to the artificial control of the rupee. That is how the foreign exchange crisis was prolonged, Mr. President."