India to provide loan assistance to print school books for Sri Lankan children

Amid ongoing economic crisis with skyrocketing inflation and dollar crunch, Sri Lanka will get Indian loan assistance to print text books for school children for the year 2023.

Education Minister Susil Premejanatha said that steps have been taken to import raw materials including papers and ink required for textbook printing under Indian credit line for 2023 education year starting from next March.

With no dollars to import printing material, education was one of the main victims of current economic crisis the country has been going through and in March last year, the island nation cancelled examinations for millions of students with no papers to print exam papers.

Sri Lanka provides text books and school uniforms for students free of cost at a cost of around $44 million.

India has extended 8 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to Sri Lanka amounting to US$1,850.64 million in the past 10 years, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar informed the Lok Sabha last month.

“Government of India has extended 08 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to Sri Lanka amounting to USD 1,850.64 million in sectors including railways, infrastructure, defence, renewable energy, petroleum and fertilizers in the past 10 years,” Jaishankar said in a written reply.

The IMF & SL govt. reached staff- level agreement to restore macroeconomic stability & debt sustainability to unlock Sri Lanka’s growth potential.
Click to read about the key reforms of the program.#SECSL #CapitalMarketOfSL
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— SEC SL – Capital Market Development & Awareness (@SEC_SriLanka) September 6, 2022

In January 2022, India extended a $400 million currency swap and a Line of Credit of US$ 500 million for importing fuel from India. India has extended a credit facility of US$ 1 billion for the procurement of food, medicines and other essential items from India.

In addition, humanitarian assistance was provided to Sri Lanka by gifting essential medicines worth about INR 6 crores, 15,000 litres of kerosene oil and US$55 million LoC for procurement of Urea fertilizer.

India has provided the biggest financial support so far extending $4 billion for the year 2022 alone. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide $2.9 billion over four years with conditions to help salvage the country from its economic crisis.