The Hon. Nishantha Perera
Hon. Nishantha Perera welcomed the Minister’s reply and noted new allocations for tea replanting, infilling, and new planting. He emphasized the importance of Ceylon Tea as a key foreign exchange earner and questioned the Ministry on action taken to address past failures, citing an earlier project begun around 2014 and 2018 where significant investment, including about Rs. 5.1 billion for 163 hectares, had not yielded results or been recovered.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I thank the Hon. Minister for the reply. In the past there were no allocations for tea replanting and infilling. Now funds have been allocated for replanting, infilling and new planting, and I thank the Hon. Minister especially for that.
¶ 02 My first supplementary question is this. Our country’s historic brand is tea—Ceylon Tea. I recall that when Sidath Wettimuny scored 190 at Lord’s, he was introduced more as a “player from the country of Ceylon Tea” than by his name. Tea is a main foreign exchange earner. In years like 2014 and 2018, a project covering 833 hectares commenced. However, for the improvement of 163 hectares of that project, about Rs. 5.1 billion was not recovered.
¶ 03 Hon. Minister, tea is our main foreign exchange earner. Funds are allocated from the Cess as well as the Treasury for tea. A large sum has been invested in cultivation, but that money has been wasted without results. Therefore, what action has the Ministry taken to correct past wrongs?
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 8 July 2025 ·No. 1752482630017444 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Nishantha Perera. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 8 July 2025. No. 1752482630017444. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10873