The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva - Chair, Committee on Public Finance

¶ 01 Public Finance Committee Report

¶ 02 Hon. Speaker, I lay on the Table the Report of the Committee on Public Finance on:

¶ 03 (i) Regulations under Section 117(2)(d) and (e) read with Sections 6, 8 and 31 of the Civil Aviation Act, No. 14 of 2010; and

¶ 04 (ii) Regulations under Section 39 read with Section 7(j) and (k) and Section 9 of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka Act, No. 34 of 2002.

¶ 05 Ordered to lie upon the Table.

¶ 06 Hon. Speaker, allow me a minute.

¶ 07 The lands at airports—other than Mattala—namely Colombo (Ratmalana), Katunayake, Ratmalana, Jaffna, and Batticaloa, are owned by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). These have been given on lease for airport operations. When transferring these to Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt.) Ltd., it has been proposed to charge Rs. 50,000 per hectare per year. Since this requires approval of Parliament, while the Committee approved the regulations, we informed them that when alienating State lands, the commercial value must be ascertained.

¶ 08 In some of these areas, a perch is said to be worth around a million rupees—for example, in the Katunayake area—yet hundreds of hectares are to be given at Rs. 50,000 per hectare per year. If these lands are given at a concessionary rate to Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt.) Ltd., then a methodology for valuing such lands commercially and alienating them accordingly must be found. Not only here, but whenever State lands are alienated, there should be a policy applicable to all. We made this representation and referred it to the Ministry of Finance.

¶ 09 Thank you.