The Hon. Ajantha Gammeddage

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, we discuss the Order on Luxury Tax on motor vehicles and the Orders under the Construction Industry Development Act, and related Gazettes.

¶ 02 On economic management: the Opposition is agitated because they dreamt the country would collapse and the government fail; those dreams are fading daily. Hence their nervousness.

¶ 03 They said the Treasury is broken; yet proper economic management has brought stability, allowing resumption of vehicle imports. One can see many new vehicles on the roads—this is inconvenient for some.

¶ 04 The construction industry had become a mafia—from local councillors to MPs and ministers—intervening, extracting commissions, and grabbing contracts. We must regularize all tenders and processes. CIDA reduced contractor registration/renewal fees to as low as Rs. 5,000 to encourage active participation; many had lapsed registrations. Previously, local road and building contracts were pushed through “community-based organizations” in name, while political proxies executed them. We have stopped that and need more genuine contractors and entrepreneurs, hence reducing fees.

¶ 05 Why did many rush to become local councillors? Not for the Rs. 15,000 allowance, but for contract capture. We ended that, so some now seek to “bring back their patrons.” The sector still has issues: if only 10 contractors exist and 10 projects arise, they collude to divide them, killing competition. We need legal and administrative measures to broaden participation and end such cartels.

¶ 06 We took over to stop theft, corruption and waste. Construction was a prime area of abuse. To end it, we must bring in more players—new registrations and reduced fees for both new and renewals. See this positively, not with the old habit of routing contracts through village committees fronting for politicians. We are correcting the Treasury’s past mismanagement done in a reckless manner. Thank you.