தமிழ்
සිංහල
Written by Staff Writer
The government signed a Statement of Corporate Intent with several state owned business enterprises at the Ministry of Finance, on Wednesday, March 15.
The objective of the Statement of Corporate Intent (SCI) is to contribute positively to strategically important state-owned business enterprises, in achieving Sri Lanka’s economic goals.
Thereby, the Ceylon Electricity Board, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Airport and Aviation Services LTD and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority signed this Statement of Corporate Intent (SCI).
On behalf of the CEB, the SCI was signed by Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda the Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy as well as D.A.S. Wijayapala the Chairman of the CEB.
The Secretary to the Ministry of Town Planning and Water Resources Sarathchandrasiri Vithana and the Chairman of the Water Supply and Drainage Board K.A. Anzar also signed the SCI.
The Secretary to Ministry of Ports and Shipping L.P. Jayampathi and the Acting Chairman of the Ports Authority signed the SCI with regard to the Sri Lankan Ports Authority.
Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, N. Somaweera signed the SCI with regard to the Airport and Aviation Services LTD.
The acting Secretary to the Ministry of Petroleum Resource Development S. Hettiarachchi and the Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation signed the SCI with regard to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake: [quote]”All these institutions have been heading in the wrong direction for the past three years due politicisation. Except for the airport, all the other institutions have been running at a loss. These losses are not 10 to 15 million, they are around 32 billion for each institution. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation incurs a loss of 56 billion, if I remember correctly. That is the loss this year. What we want is to amend these and move forward without burdening the general public. This has nothing to do with the IMF. The expenditure of the Hambantota port is 19.7 billion but the income is 200 million. This deficit has to be paid by the Ports Authority. It cannot be done. What we are trying to do is decentralise the powers while holding on to the ownership, we want to ensure that the people are not burdened. We will not provide the ownership that is held by the government exceeding 51%. The Mattala airport is good, but if there are no flights for whose use was it made, the peacocks? We will look for a solution before it comes to this point. We fumbled up the paddy issue. We went in knowing that we are heading into a problem. We cannot let the CEB go on with losses during the drought, but we cannot stop providing electricity as well. We are trying to not burden the consumer”.[/quote]
Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva meanwhile said: [quote]”We are paying the debts of the Mattala Airport with the income of the Airport here. More than fifteen state owned enterprises has not paid ETF and EPF. The Sri Lanka Transport Board had an amount of Rs. 12 billion. We have taken the relevant policy decisions to strengthen the economic process of the country”.[/quote]
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