Sri Lanka’s minister of industry and entrepreneurship development, Sunil Handunneththi has faced criticism after he made a remark at a Regional Development Bank event, where he compared debt to “certain girls,” saying “when the time comes, they forget all that you’ve done for them”.
Handunneththi then said “bank officials must not take offence” at the comparison.
“Not all banks behave this way, but when a customer faces difficulty, banks often bring up historical data, letters, and past commitments, disregarding earlier repayments, deposits, and sacrifices,” he added.
He then furthered the analogy “if the connection is there, it can be permanent,” regarding the relationship between borrowers, particularly small and medium size enterprises, and banks.
Handunneththi is a member of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and currently serving in the cabinet under the National People's Power (NPP) coalition. In the past he has boasted that the JVP holds "the biggest bank account in Sri Lanka" to publicly rejecting the 13th Amendment and devolution of police and land powers to Tamils.
