The Hon. Sunil Handunnetti

¶ 01 Hon. Member, your Leader of the Opposition raised those very questions last Tuesday in Parliament and I gave detailed answers. I will again address the most important part of your question.

¶ 02 We do not have a stock of 2,000 or 3,000 metric tons of expired sugar. If there is such sugar, it is stock for which our customers—the ones who have paid us—have made payment but have not yet taken delivery and have kept in our warehouses. Such quantities may exist, but they are not our stock; they belong to those buyers, and they have paid. Their undelivered stocks may be there. However, with respect to the latest harvest and this season’s new production, none of that will expire. Generally, sugar can be kept for two to two and a half years. Sugar does not expire like other commodities. Therefore, what remains are old purchases by our buyers that they have not yet cleared; we have no issue with that as payment has been received. That is the most important part of the answer.

¶ 03 On other matters, we have prepared a market plan. This evening as well, we are meeting all our buyers. We have clearly told Parliament that we give at 200 plus VAT; our price level is even lower than that. Prices declined recently for two reasons. One, white sugar imports—billions of rupees were spent and hundreds of thousands of tons of white sugar were brought in. Also, brown sugar has been brought in and sold as white sugar. At one time there was such a detection at Sri Lanka Customs. The Sugarcane Research Institute informed Customs that what had been brought was not white sugar but brown sugar. However, the Sri Lanka Standards Institution examined and said it could be sold as white sugar. That happened at the time—bringing brown sugar and selling it as white sugar. That will not be allowed now. Along with the Minister of Trade, I have said that SLSI must check these with certification from the Sugarcane Research Institute. That is how it will be in future.

¶ 04 I have also discussed with the Director General of Sri Lanka Customs. We are now intercepting all such activities. Hereafter it will not be possible to bring brown sugar mixed in with white, or bring sugar concealed among rice or other cargo. If they do, we will personally go and seize such consignments. So that will not happen again.

¶ 05 Regarding ethanol, we have now taken a decision. Several of our plantation companies—Hingurana, Kantale, Pelwatte, Sevanagala—produce ethanol. We have set the minimum price at Rs. 800 per litre. We have informed all distilleries companies that if they purchase ethanol, they must pay Rs. 800 per litre. We will not allow imports either. Therefore, there will be no issue for the farmers. We have not reduced the Rs. 10,000 paid to farmers per ton of cane in any way. We have not reduced SHS or any other allowances to employees either. So, there is no problem here.

¶ 06 There is no issue regarding sugar. We produce 8% of the market domestically. I visited the Kantale Sugar Factory yesterday. While it was operating in 1993, it was shut down. President Ranasinghe Premadasa closed it while it was running and sold it to a person named Sumanasekera, who even took away vehicles. Those vehicles are now scrap, and all operations were halted. We will not take such decisions. If we did, the same fate would befall Hingurana, Pelwatte and Sevanagala—the legacy President Premadasa established.