Banks forcibly converting Dollars: More confusion with Cabraal’s tweet

January 5, 2022 at 10:33 AM

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has refuted reports claiming that Sri Lankan banks have been ordered by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to forcibly convert balances in their customers’ Forex accounts.

Cabraal said rumors spread by some mischievous elements that Sri Lankan banks have been ordered by the CBSL to forcibly convert balances in their customers’ Forex accounts are totally false. 

Despite the CBSL Governor saying so, several social media users have revealed otherwise.

A number of social media users have been pointing out in the past few days that they have been contacted by their banking partners to convert balances in their Forex accounts.

In December 2021, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) had filed a Writ petition at the Court of Appeal over the issue of conversion of foreign currency earnings into Sri Lankan Rupees.

The BASL said draconian measures of forcefully converting or threatening to convert the foreign currency of Attorneys-at-Law who are members of the BASL amounts to a form of expropriation of private property which is both unconstitutional and wholly illegal and which cannot be sanctioned in law.

In its Writ petition, the BASL called for the purported Gazette Extraordinary 2251/42 of 28th October 2021 marked “P3” quashed, as being ultra vires the powers of the 1st Respondent and as being unlawful, irrational, unjustifiable, arbitrary, capricious, in breach of all principles of justice, and due process, and therefore vitiated in law and liable to be quashed. (NewsWire)