A ministerial committee trying to find a solution to the oil hedging payments crisis has sought the advice of the Attorney General on how to proceed, The Sunday Times FT reliably learns.
Last week Standard
Chartered Bank CEO Clive Haswell and Citibank CEO Dennis Hussey also met President Mahinda Rajapaksa to explain their case with the latter responding that the matter is being looked at by the committee.
The committee of Ministers – G.L. Peiris, Sarath Amunugama, A.H.M. Fowzie and Nimal Siripala de Silva – is looking at a possible re-negotiation of the hedging contracts in which the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) owes five banks a sum of around $800 million.
The Supreme Court last month vacated interim decisions made in the hedging case and dismissed the petitions after the government failed to implement court decisions relating to fuel pricing.
The hedging deals were said to be one-sided and heavily in favour of the banks. CPC sources said, after the petitions were dismissed, that they have been advised by the AG to refrain from making the payments. |
E-mail