The Government yesterday presented in Parliament a new Bill to authorize the raising of loans in or outside Sri Lanka for the purpose of Active Liability Management to improve public debt management.

The Bill was presented for the First Reading by Chief Government Whip and Minister Gayantha Karunathilake.

The objective of the Bill is to manage public debt to ensure the financing needs and payment obligations of the Government are met at the lowest possible cost over the medium to long term consistent with a prudent degree of risk.

The new Bill allows borrowing in advance for debt servicing in future.

The Government also presented a new Bill titled “Demutualization of Colombo Stock Exchange” to convert the Colombo Stock Exchange, which is a company limited by guarantee, to a company limited by shares. According to the Bill, the Board of Directors of the Demutualized Stock Exchange should determine the number of shares to be issued of the Demutualized Stock Exchange and value of the reserves to be converted to share capital for such purpose within a period of one month from the date of conversion.

The two Bills will be moved for the Second Reading debate at a future date.