By Prominent civil rights activist Chandra Jayaratne has called upon President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickramasingha to look in to and rectify grievances Due to the Domestic Debt Optimization (DDO): Jayaratne highlights the grievances of over 2.5 million stakeholders of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) who have been negatively impacted by the forced debt optimization process implemented by the government.
He emphasizes that this process was executed without transparency, public consultation, or consideration of the best advice from intellectuals in society.
Loss of Future Wealth Value: He asserts that the stakeholders have suffered a significant loss in their future wealth value share of the EPF, estimated to be around 40%, due to misleading representations and assumptions made during the debt restructuring process.
Lack of Follow-up and Redress: Despite submitting a letter addressing these grievances in December 2023 and receiving acknowledgment from the President’s Office and the Ministry, Jayaratne notes that there has been no follow-up communication or executive decisions to redress the impacted citizens’ grievances.
Call for Action: Jayaratne calls upon the President and Finance Minister to recognize and address the grievances of the EPF stakeholders promptly. He urges them to commit to democratic, equitable, fair, and reasonable recompense measures to correct the injustice meted out to the majority of EPF stakeholders.
