Basil Rajapaksa

Basil Rajapaksa
බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ
பசில் ராஜபக்ஷ
Minister of Finance
In office
8 July 2021 – 3 April 2022
PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa
Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapaksa
Preceded byMahinda Rajapaksa
Succeeded byAli Sabry
Minister of Economic Development
In office
22 April 2010 – 9 January 2015
PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa
Prime MinisterD. M. Jayaratne
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byRanil Wickremesinghe
Member of Parliament
for Gampaha District
In office
22 April 2010 – 26 June 2015
Majority425,861 Preferential Votes
Member of Parliament
for National List
In office
8 July 2021 – 9 June 2022
Preceded byJayantha Ketagoda
Succeeded byDhammika Perera
In office
19 September 2007 – 9 February 2010
Preceded byMohamed Ismail Anwar Ismail
Personal details
Born (1951-04-27) 27 April 1951 (age 73)
Dominion of Ceylon
CitizenshipSri Lankan
American[1]
NationalitySri Lankan
Political partySri Lanka Podujana Peramuna
SpousePushpa Rajapaksa
ChildrenThejani, Bimalka and Ashantha
Alma materIsipathana College
Ananda College
Websitebasilrajapaksa.com

Basil Rajapaksa (born 27 April 1951) is a Sri Lankan-American politician. He is a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for the national list.

He was also a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament from 2007 to 2015. During the period of 2005–2010 he served as a presidential senior advisor for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and in 2007 he was appointed as a member of parliament from the national list. He was the Cabinet minister for Economic Development[2] in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's second term (2010–2015). In the 2010 parliamentary election, he was elected from Gampaha district by receiving the highest number of preferential votes in Sri Lanka. He entered the parliament again from the national list and was appointed the Finance Minister during which he was accused of extreme negligence and mismanagement resulting in the worsening of the Sri Lankan economic crisis and was ultimately forced to resign under increasing protests by general public in the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis. He resigned his seat in parliament on 9 June 2022.[3]

  1. ^ "I have not renounced my US citizenship – Basil Rajapaksa". Newsfirst.lk.
  2. ^ "New Cabinet sworn in". Archived from the original on 25 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  3. ^ "Sri Lankan economic crisis: Ex-finance minister Basil Rajapaksa quits amid protest". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 9 June 2022.