Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka said, 16,000 MT rice have been supplied under India’s multi-pronged support to Sri Lanka in the past week alone
Rice exported from India reached Sri Lanka on board ship Chen Glory: Twitter/@IndiainSL
Sri Lanka has been facing an acute economic crisis for the past few month. To help its neighbour, India has exported 11,000 MT rice which reached Colombo on Tuesday. The foodgrain was send to the island nation ahead of New Year celebrations in Sri Lanka.
The rice reached Colombo on board ship – Chen Glory. The Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka said, 16,000 MT rice have been supplied under “India’s multi-pronged support to Sri Lanka in the past week alone.”
“These supplies which mark the special bond between India and Sri Lanka will continue,” the Indian embassy in the island nation said in a tweet.
New year in Sri Lanka is generally celebrated on 13 or 14 April. It traditionally begins at the sighting of the new moon.
As Sri Lanka reels its worst economic crisis, price of rice in the country had risen to over Rs 200 a kilogram last week.
Sri Lanka has been battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting massive population of the nation. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of Sri Lanka has been in a free-fall, leading to the crush of tourism.
Not just this, Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country.
Meanwhile, India has stepped forward to help Sri Lanka by supplying fuel, vegetables, daily ration items and medicines.
For the unversed, India has already supplied over 270,000 MT of fuel to Sri Lanka till now and has earlier announced another USD 1 billion as a credit to help shore up the sinking economy of the island nation.
The USD 1 billion Line of Credit to Colombo will help in keeping their food prices and fuel costs under check.
Since January this year, support from India to Sri Lanka has exceeded USD 2.5 billion. In February, New Delhi provided a short-term loan of USD 500 million to Colombo for the purchase of petroleum products through the Ministry of Energy and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka.
In November 2021, India had given 100 tonnes of nano nitrogen liquid fertilizers to Sri Lanka as their government stopped the import of chemical fertilizers.
Besides, the Reserve Bank of India has extended a currency swap of USD 400 million and deferred payments owed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka under the Asian Clearance Union worth several hundred million dollars.
With inputs from agencies
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