The Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri
Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri questioned the handling of stocks released from the Port to Sathosa, arguing that the gap between Sathosa’s fixed price and the market price indicated possible embezzlement or theft. He asked why those allegedly identified in relevant files had not been promptly arrested and illustrated his concern with an example of imported rice being bought at a lower cost and sold at a much higher maximum retail price.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 I will ask my first supplementary, Mr. Speaker. We thought those listed in the files would be promptly arrested. Hon. Minister, the issue is this: when the stock at the Port was given to Sathosa, Sathosa fixed a price and when you calculate the reduction compared to the market, only then does it become clear this is embezzlement and theft. Yes, that’s true. There is a market price and there is Sathosa’s price—a big gap. The people must understand this.
¶ 02 Let me take a budgetary example. Now you import rice from India. Suppose you bring it at Rs. 130 per kg, but you set a maximum retail of Rs. 220–230 per kg. The gap is large. I gave that example.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 ·No. 1734685396083959 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 December 2024. No. 1734685396083959. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/18084