The Hon. Anura Karunathilaka

¶ 01 Alright, alright. He will answer. I know what he says. You are the very Member who loudly said on television that demurrage was being charged on coal ships. How much demurrage was paid? USD 690,686? Was that for a single ship? I know very well whether what you say is true or not. Now, please allow me to speak.

¶ 02 What I was saying, Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, is this: on 7 June at 7 p.m., we had generated 1.6 MW from thermal units. Total generation was 2,417 MW. As a percentage, that is 7.2 per cent. How can it be 7.2 per cent if it was generated using hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel? If you cannot answer, walking out is fine by me. But do not present false statistics here and mislead the public. As public representatives, whether elected with difficulty or via the National List, we are placed here not to present numbers that mislead this august House and the people.

¶ 03 Be that as it may, under the Ports and Airports Development Levy Act, I wish to speak today on a matter specified in an extraordinary gazette relating to certain elements concerning civil aviation. Under Section 3(3) of the Ports and Airports Development Levy Act, No. 18 of 2011, Extraordinary Gazette No. 2478/05 dated 03 March 2026, among other things, introduces revised, classified HS code numbers in place of the old 115 codes, and brings in several new national subheadings. Through those HS codes, several new subheadings are expected to be introduced. Orders under the Revenue Protection Act have been issued. Based on prevailing tax rates, without creating any substantive change, these amendments essentially aim to re-impose the currently applicable rates under the revised classification subheadings.

¶ 04 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, while this Extraordinary Gazette does not directly concern global civil aviation, we all know this is not a good period for civil aviation worldwide due to conflicts in the Middle East. With that situation, aviation networks face insecurity, closure of certain airspaces, flight delays, and other disruptions. This has directly affected our national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, as well. However, there is a narrative spreading in society that Rs. 100 billion from the Treasury is to be infused as capital investment for airline operations. In the time I have left, I intend to clarify this, and it will not take long.

¶ 05 When we came in and began work in September 2024, SriLankan Airlines had an operational loss of USD 150 million. By April 2026, we reduced it to USD 100 million. We acknowledge we have not yet brought the airline to profitability or even to a breakeven point, and the wartime environment since March this year has further worsened matters. Nevertheless, within this period we were able to reduce the monthly operational loss by USD 2 million. Even via capital investments, we do not intend to continue channeling large sums of taxpayers’ money into this airline. Therefore, we have taken a policy decision on SriLankan Airlines. A panel of experts has been appointed to recommend the restructuring to be carried out, including how best to build it with participation of the private sector.

¶ 06 Finally, let me remind the House that we understand our responsibility. Whatever the obstacles on the path to fulfilling that responsibility, we will discharge it properly on behalf of the people of this country.

¶ 07 Thank you very much.