Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna operations chief Johnston Fernando accused the government of failing to manage the economy on Thursday, hours before the 2027 budget speech, and said state institutions were running losses in the billions.
“This is a boastful Government that does not understand administration,” Fernando told journalists near the Colombo Fort Court, the Daily Mirror reported. The filing does not say why he was at the court.
On taxes and prices
Fernando said that although the President had claimed taxes were not increased and that some had been cut, several taxes had in fact risen, adding to the burden on the public. He said figures published by the Central Bank and other recognised institutions showed the cost of living climbing and could not simply be dismissed.
The remarks land directly against the government’s pre-budget framing. The President has trailed further tax cuts in the 2027 budget and a further rise in the PAYE threshold, and the budget presented on Thursday is expected to carry no new taxes or rate increases. Fernando names no tax that he says has gone up, and the Daily Mirror does not press him on it.
On the courts
Referring to what the report calls the container controversy, Fernando questioned the progress of complaints filed over the incident and alleged that law enforcement institutions were being used to suppress political opponents. He accused unnamed institutions of using court proceedings and remand orders as instruments of political repression, and said his party would not be intimidated.
He also accused the government of fabricating evidence and filing false cases through state officials, which he said amounted to a misuse of state resources. Fernando said the SLPP would take all possible political measures against what he described as government repression.
On Sathosa
Comparing the present position with his party’s time in office, Fernando said the SLPP administration had turned loss-making institutions, including Lanka Sathosa, into profitable ones.
“We did not record a single loss at Sathosa during the entire five years,” he said. He added that the previous administration had used Sathosa to supply essential goods at affordable prices and to hold down market prices generally.
That claim carries context the filing omits. Fernando held the trade portfolio, and Sathosa matters remain before the courts. In October a Lanka Sathosa director who also served as Fernando’s personal secretary was remanded over an alleged Rs. 1.9 million misappropriation from a 2011 cooperative movement festival fund. Fernando himself indicated a guilty plea on three Motor Traffic Act counts in late October while denying an import-tax fraud charge, in an unrelated matter.
Neither the Daily Mirror’s report nor Fernando’s remarks address those proceedings, and no audited Sathosa accounts are cited by either side. His assertion of five loss-free years is a political claim, not a verified financial statement.
On sourcing
This report rests on a single verified source. Searches of NewsFirst, EconomyNext, Daily FT, Island, Daily News, Colombo Gazette and Hiru News returned no filing on these remarks, only older coverage of Sathosa and of Fernando’s court matters. Ada Derana, which frequently carries doorstep remarks of this kind, remains unreachable to this desk.
Not reported
The filing does not identify the container controversy, name any complaint or the institutions Fernando accuses, or specify which state institutions he says are making billion-rupee losses. It gives no Central Bank figure despite his reference to them, carries no government response, and does not say what political measures the SLPP intends to take.
