Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Tourism

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chair, I am pleased to speak on the Companies (Amendment) Bill. Before that, I must respond to the Opposition Leader’s attempt to portray the Government’s renewable energy policy as having reduced the tariff for developers from 37% to 20% to hurt investors. When the tariff was 37%, the unit cost would ultimately be borne by the public and businesses. The Government therefore decided, considering all parties—including solar investors—to reduce to 20%. This is not to disadvantage investors but to balance all consumers and producers.

¶ 02 When I queried an AI tool, “Why is Sri Lanka a less-developed country?”, the short answer returned was political instability and corruption. Through this Companies (Amendment) Bill, the Government is taking a sound approach to address these—by building political stability, which we have done after the last elections, and combatting corruption through transparency. FATF Recommendation 24 deals with transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons. Our law from 2007 should have included this, but those then in power intentionally did not.

¶ 03 The IMF says 2–5% of global GDP is black money; I believe Sri Lanka’s percentage is higher. On money-laundering risk rankings (0 best, 10 worst), Haiti scores 8.25 (high risk), the best country is about 2.87, and Sri Lanka stands at 5.28—around 80th of 164 countries—too high. We see people who started with a small café becoming multimillionaires—this is often via laundering illicit funds through businesses. We need to convert the black economy into lawful transactions by closing legal loopholes.

¶ 04 These amendments require disclosure of beneficial ownership. Previously there was no law to compel disclosure—this was deliberate. We must ensure political stability and economic stability by minimizing money laundering and terrorism financing and building a transparent economy. We will not allow those in white coats to legitimize black money. Hence, we amend Act No. 7 of 2007 to include provisions on money laundering and ultimate beneficial ownership, and present a new Bill accordingly.

¶ 05 I remind the Opposition: what we are doing now should have been added in 1990. We invite you to support these essential laws to create a transparent economy and curb money laundering and terrorism financing while we continue to build a stable, corruption-free State. Thank you.