Category: News

The Ceylon Electricity Board Chairman told the Parliamentary Watchdog that he was told by the President that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was insisting that the energy investments projects be awarded to the Adani Group.

Appearing at the Committee on Public Enterprises hearing in Parliament on Friday (10), the CEB Chairman said that following a meeting chaired by the President, he was summoned by the Head of State and was told that the Indian Prime Minister was insisting that the 500 MW wind power plant be given to India’s Adani Group.

“I told him (President) that this is not a matter related to me or the CEB and it should be referred to the Board of Investment,” he told COPE.

The CEB Chairman said that he thereafter informed the Treasury Secretary in writing, and requested him to look into the matter while noting that there was a government to goverment requirement on the matter.

However, he admitted that the agreement can be termed as unsolicited as it is a G2G agreement.

In Parliament, Sri Lanka’s Opposition charged that an unsolicited government-to-government agreement to build a 500 MW wind power plant in the northern coast with the involvement of the Adani Group was the main reason to bring forward amendments to the 1989 Act.

The main Opposition SJB wanted projects beyond 10 MW capacity to go through a competitive bidding process, but the majority of the government MPs voted against the clause.

This Bill, introduced in Parliament on May 17th, 2022 by the Minister of Power and Energy, qualifies a person to apply for a generation license to generate electricity.

Accordingly, this amendment will remove the restrictions on the issuance of a power generation license for a person whose generating electricity over and above the generation capacity of 25 M.W and will allow anyone to apply for it without any restriction on the generation capacity.

The Sri Lanka Electricity Amendment Bill No. 20 of 2009 was passed in Parliament without amendments by a majority of votes on Thursday (09).

Following the debate on the second reading of the Bill, the Opposition demanded a vote. 120 votes were cast in favor and 36 were cast against. 13 Members of Parliament abstained from casting their vote. Thus the second reading was passed by a majority of 84 votes.

Subsequently, during the committee stage, the Opposition objected to the amendment brought by the Minister of Energy to an Article 4 and the ruling party had to withdraw the amendment. Accordingly, Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva, Member of Parliament on behalf of the Opposition moved an amendment to Article 4 which the Minister of Power and Energy rejected. Thus, the opposition called for a division and the amendment moved by the Opposition was rejected by a majority of 64 votes. 51 votes were cast in favor and 115 votes were cast against.

The Opposition then called for a vote for Article 4 in its entirety, which was passed by a majority of 70 votes to which 116 votes were cast in favor and 46 cast against.

Accordingly, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill was passed by a majority in Parliament.

In response to an urgent request from the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), the Government of India (GOI) has decided to extend a Line of Credit (LOC) of US$ 55 million to Sri Lanka for the procurement of urea fertilizer.

In this context, an LOC agreement was signed between GOSL and the Export-Import Bank of India on Friday June 10, 2 at Colombo, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera, and the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay.

Senior officials from the Sri Lankan and Indian side were also present during the signing ceremony.

This LOC will help GOSL secure urea fertilizer for the ongoing paddy sowing ‘Yala’ season. In view of the critical requirement, GOSL and EXIM Bank have agreed to complete all procurement procedures expeditiously so that urea supplies can reach Sri Lanka in a short span of time.

The Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to GOI for the timely assistance. The High Commissioner highlighted that the speedy finalization of the LOC testifies to the importance GOI attaches to the welfare of the people of Sri Lanka.

It may be recalled that in line with its ‘Neighborhood First’ policy and as an earnest friend and partner of Sri Lanka, India has extended multi-pronged assistance to the people of Sri Lanka in the last few months. The support from India ranges from economic assistance of close to USD 3.5 billion to helping secure Sri Lanka’s food, health and energy security by supplying essential items like food, medicines, fuel, kerosene etc.

The Colombo Port City, Sri Lanka Telecom, and the Colombo Lotus Tower are among a number of institutions brought under a new Ministry.

A new portfolio for a Minister of Technology and Investment Promotion has been created.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has issued an Extraordinary Gazette notice amending an earlier gazette to include the new Ministry.

The departments and institutions which will fall under the Minister of Technology and Investment Promotion will include the Department of Registration of Persons, Department of Immigration and Emigration, Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka and allied institutions, Information and Communication Technology Agency and allied institutions, Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team, Sri Lanka Telecom and its
subsidiaries and allied institutions and the Colombo Lotus Tower.

The Colombo Port City Economic Commission, Techno Park Development Company (Pvt.) Limited, Information Technology Parks (Jaffna & Mannar), Industrial Technology Institute, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (Pvt.) Ltd., Sri Lanka Standards Institute, Sri Lanka Institute of Biotechnology (Pvt.) Ltd., and the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka have also been brought under the new Ministry.

Some of these institutions were earlier under the Ministry of Defence which fell under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the Minister of Defence.

TUI has cancelled more holidays to Sri Lanka amid political and economic instability in the country. The airline had originally cancelled all flights and holidays up to June 12 – but this has now been extended to June 30.

Bosses are in the process of contacting affected customers to discuss their options. News of further cancellations come as the Foreign Office continues to advise against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka.

The UK Government body referenced several violent incidents that have taken place across the country, which have resulted in injuries and loss of life. TUI says customers who are currently in their resort can continue to enjoy their holiday as planned.

A spokesperson for TUI said: “Due to the ongoing political and economic instability in Sri Lanka, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have advised against all but essential travel.

“As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel all holidays to Sri Lanka departing up to and including 30 June 2022. We will be proactively contacting all impacted customers in departure date order to discuss their options. Please note this advice does not apply to customers transiting through Sri Lanka’s international airport and customers currently in resort can continue to enjoy their holiday as planned. We will continue to monitor the situation and update customers should there be any further updates. We would like to thank our customers for their understanding at this time.”

Source: Daily Record

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has expressed concern over reports circulated by several media outlets that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has appointed Mr. Dhammika Perera to fill the National List seat which became vacant by the resignation of Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, and stated that Mr Perera was not a member of the SLPP until a few days ago and that his name was not included in the list of persons qualified to be elected as Members of Parliament, noting that in terms of Article 99A of the Constitution, the National List, or any of the district lists submitted by the SLPP for the Parliamentary Election held in August 2020.

This was known via a media release by the CPA today (10).

“Mr. Dhammika Perera has business interests in several public and private limited companies covering several important sectors in the economy. Decisions made by Mr. Perera as a legislator, and possibly as a future Minister, would have a significant and direct impact on these companies and sectors, which creates a direct conflict of interest. These conflicts of interest are not resolved simply by Mr. Perera resigning from official positions held within the companies as he would nonetheless stand to gain significant financial benefits. These circumstances make it all the more important why the citizens of Sri Lanka should have known of the potential of Mr. Perera being appointed to Parliament when they voted in the Parliamentary Election held in August 2020. Additionally, if businesses in which Mr. Perera has an interest in, enter into or continue with contracts made by or on behalf of the State or a public corporation”, this could be a violation of Article 91(1)(e) of the Constitution,” the statement read.

The CPA statement further noted that in terms of the Constitution, only a person whose name was included in one of the district nomination papers, or the national list submitted by a political party or independent group, is entitled to be nominated to fill such a vacancy in the membership of Parliament.

“CPA has maintained this position consistently and has raised concerns when such appointments were made previously, including by challenging several such appointments in Court. In 2016, CPA filed a case challenging the National List appointment of Mr. Sarath Fonseka by the United National Party (UNP). In that case, the Supreme Court refused to grant leave to proceed, but no substantive order with reasons was issued. In January 2020, CPA criticised the appointment of Mr. Saman Rathnapriya and Mr. Basil Rajapaksa on a similar basis,” the statement mentioned.

Furthermore, the CPA stated that the United National Party (UNP) United People’s Freedom Alliance / People’s Alliance have on previous occasions made similar appointments to Parliament and that political parties hide behind Section 64 (5) of the Parliament Elections Act No. 1 of 1981, which authorises them to appoint “any
member” of the political party to fill such a vacancy.

“CPA states that the said provision of the Parliament Elections Act violates the clear and unambiguous provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 99A and Article 101(H). Section 64 (5), although clearly unconstitutional,
remains valid only because the Sri Lankan Constitution does not allow the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of legislation once passed by Parliament. The said practice of appointing “any member” of a political party, who was not nominated at the relevant election, violates the franchise of the people which is part of the sovereignty of the people. If as the Constitution suggests the people are indeed the sovereign of the Republic, then the people should know before an election who the political party intends to appoint to Parliament,” it further noted.

Additionally, the CPA statement noted that allowing political parties to appoint whomever they wish to fill vacancies that are engineered for that purpose undermines the value of the franchise of the people and unnecessarily and arbitrarily inflates the power of the leadership of political parties.

“The constitutional purpose of the National List is to ensure representation for sections of public opinion and smaller minorities that may not otherwise find parliamentary representation through the electoral process. It is not to facilitate the narrow self-interest of any political party or the ambitions of any individual,” it mentioned.

The statement concluded by calling on the SLPP and all other political parties to respect the provisions of the Constitution and the franchise of the people. CPA also calls upon all political parties representing Parliament, to take steps to amend Section 64 (5) of the Parliament Elections Act, to dispel any doubts about whether it is in line with Article 99A and Article 101(H) of the Constitution.