Government omits main data from debt report.

The government has omitted critical information from its second debt policy statement that it was bound to share with the national assembly, compromising transparency and undermining the spirit of an act of the parliament.

The Ministry of Finance has submitted the Debt Policy Statement 2020-21 - covering the second year of the incumbent government, in the national assembly aimed at complying with requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act of 2005. However, some very critical pieces of information given in the 2019-20 report were missing from the new statement, including the status of compliance with the FRDL Act of 2005, showed the report that the Ministry of Finance uploaded on its website on Friday night.

The FRDL Act had been enacted in 2005 to ensure fiscal prudence, put the country on path of debt...