The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been given the status of a Cabinet Minister.
Accordingly, from now on, the Governor of the Central Bank will be seated in the same row as the Cabinet Ministers at state functions and he will be addressed as the ‘Hon. Governor of the Central Bank’.
President is the first citizen of the country, the Prime Minister is the second citizen and the Speaker is the third citizen.
The fourth citizen is the Chief Justice. Cabinet Ministers and henceforth the Governor of the Central Bank are in fifth place.
Confirming the status of a Cabinet Minister to the Governor of the Central Bank does not entitle him to any political or other privileges in addition to the existing powers.
In the 1950s, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was given the status of a Cabinet Minister.
But the constitutions of 1962 and 1978 deprived them of that status.