Mon, July 30, 2012
COLOMBO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's government is drawing criticism from opposition parties after a London court ordered Standard Chartered Bank to be paid 160 million U.S. dollars for non-payment of dues linked to a hedging deal, an official said here on Monday.
The ruling, which was delivered by the London Appeal Court last week, was over a controversial hedging deal that was entered into by the bank and the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) in 2007.
As a result the Sri Lankan government could end up paying as much as 200 million U.S. dollars.
In the wake of the verdict Sri Lanka's main opposition, the United National Party (UNP) is criticizing the government for mismanaging the issue.
"The London Court ruling is a further confirmation of how Sri Lanka is losing out from the gamble of public money from different markets. With public money, one can't get away saying 'you win some and you lose some," UNP MP Harsha de Silva told media.
It was earlier reported that the government plans to appeal the verdict but analysts have expressed concern over the success of such a move.
Litigation filed by Deutsche Bank who was also part of the hedging deal is still pending while the case lodged by Citigroup was ruled in favor of the government.
