The Hon. Kabir Hashim

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, I speak for the Opposition following Hon. Sarath Kumara on the Regulations under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act and the Order under the Foreign Exchange Act.

¶ 02 I wish to address the container crisis at the Port which affected foreign exchange, imports and exports. Responsibility lies with the President and the JVP Government. This is based on facts and statistics. A work-to-rule in Sri Lanka Customs had been ongoing since about November. The JVP Government took office in November; by January a severe crisis in clearing containers had developed, harming the country. The key trade unions aligned with the JVP in Customs led this.

¶ 03 The Customs Ordinance needs reform. When progressive laws were attempted under the Yahapalana Government by Minister Mangala Samaraweera, these unions and the JVP opposed it. The current crisis stems from that history. Having used some of these unionists to gain power, the Government cannot now act against them, and no steps were taken by the President, despite his Secretary being a Customs expert.

¶ 04 Port operations comprise roughly 80% transshipment, yielding about 20% of revenue; imports and exports yield about 80% of revenue. Delays hit importers and exporters hardest. Many Customs officers worked diligently to resolve this, but a mafia within Customs blocked solutions. Why did the President not intervene with his own unions?

¶ 05 Customs revenue of Rs. 1,500 billion in 2024 is largely from clean items: 53% of revenue comes from about 50 HS lines—fuel (~Rs. 300 bn), iron/steel (~Rs. 150 bn), cigarettes (~Rs. 200 bn), electronics (~Rs. 100 bn), vehicles (~Rs. 80 bn), etc.—mostly official, large importers; only about Rs. 96 bn is from detected fraud. Why then is the Government coddling the mafia causing delays?

¶ 06 Demurrage—terminal and liner—rose sharply, costs borne by importers and passed to consumers, while terminal operators CICT (mostly Chinese-owned), SAGT (mostly John Keells/foreign investors) and West Container Terminal (Adani majority) gained. The money leaves the country in dollars.

¶ 07 The President visited the Port amid crisis for a cordial meeting with unionists and even distributed gifts, claiming containers were not moving out because drivers were late and because containers go to Puttalam, causing congestion. That is factually wrong. Of roughly 1,400–1,500 containers cleared daily, only about 50 or fewer go to Puttalam, mainly perishables. Most warehouses are around Orugodawatta and Colombo. The President appears to have been misadvised.

¶ 08 Recently, with a rapid clearance programme, the backlog was cleared in four days. Did Puttalam get blocked then? Clearly not. The Government still does not grasp how to solve such problems.

¶ 09 I table the following questions for response by the Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Hon. (Dr.) Harshana Suriyapperuma, and the Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance: 1) Number of containers selected for examination by 20’ and 40’ sizes; 2) Examination capacity at RCT, Grayline 1 and Grayline 2 by size; 3) Results of examinations for September 2024 to January 2025 using the Risk Management Unit, with recoveries by bands (nil, <Rs. 50,000; Rs. 50,000–100,000; Rs. 100,000–150,000, etc.); 4) Cost of container recovery staff and CCED for corresponding months; 5) Demurrages paid by importers to SAGT, CICT, JCT and UCT in the same period; and 6) Customs Container Examination Yard charges paid to RCT, Grayline 1 and 2.

¶ 10 According to logistics experts, the estimated cost of delay to importers and the country exceeds Rs. 10 billion.

¶ 11 We say to the President and the Government: you failed to break the egg mafia, rice mafia, coconut oil mafia, passport mafia, and now the Customs mafia. If you wish to implement “Clean Sri Lanka”, first clean the mafias that siphon off billions of dollars from our economy.