10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna on behalf of the Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri

10 April 2025 ·Oral question: Second Round of Oral Questions and Standing Order 27(2) Questions (Tabled)

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Asked the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development to state whether there is a current rice shortage, identify its causes, and confirm whether sufficient rice stocks exist for national consumption. The question also sought an admission on whether major rice mill owners maintain a monopoly and requested measures to release rice stocks to the market in a manner that benefits both paddy farmers and consumers.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Question to the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development:

¶ 02 (a) Will he inform this House - (i) whether he admits that there is a dire shortage of rice in the market at present; (ii) if so, the reasons for the occurrence of such a shortage; (iii) whether stocks of rice sufficient for consumption are currently available in the country; (iv) whether he admits that the main rice mill owners are maintaining a rice monopoly; and (v) the measures that will be taken to release rice stocks to the market in a way that would provide relief to the paddy farmer as well as to the rice consumer?

¶ 03 (b) If not, why?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Thursday, 10 April 2025 ·No. 1747999742032122 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna on behalf of the Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 April 2025. No. 1747999742032122. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/11283