Questions raised in parliament on fete fo ETI depositors

COLOMBO (News 1^st) - MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake raised a question on the depositors at ETI Finance, during Wednesday's (May 23) parliamentary session. He started saying that he wished to draw attention to the issues faced by those who deposited money at a well known financial institution known as ETI Finance. He said that there are two institutions and a sum of 36 Billion Rupees from 35,036 depositors was placed as deposits there. He then questioned what measures the Central Bank has taken to secure the funds of those depositors and what measures have been taken to pay-back the depositors? He also questioned if a decision has been reached to sell the assets of this institution? Responding to the questions, State Minister of Finance, Eran Wickremesinghe said that a bid of 75 Million US Dollars was made to purchase the assets and this was approved by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He added that the Monetary Board has decided to repay 10% to the depositors as an initial step and when the remaining 43 Million US Dollars come in, another 10% will be paid. Furthermore, he stated that ETI Finance will be purchased by Blue Summit Capital Management PTE. LTD which is a listed company in Singapore. UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardene remarked that Mano Tittawella, who is serving as a consultant to the Ministry of Finance, had been serving as the Chief Operator at this particular institution before it went bankrupt? State Minister Eran Wickremesinghe responded to it by saying that he was there. MP Bandula then raised the question as to what was the basis used to appoint a person who made a company go bankrupt as a consultant to the Ministry of Finance? The State Minister of finance deflected the question by stating that back then, there were allegations against the Former Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal. He added that they put forward those allegations, yet, the Former President appointed him to that post. UPFA MP, Dayasiri Jayasekara then asked to reveal the names of the directors in the Singapore based company which he agreed to. MP Wimal Wweerawansa alleged that the Government has sold the company to a company called Lyca mobile which he claimed had financed the LTTE.