The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, first, I express our sorrow to the families of all those who lost lives due to floods. We hope the Government will quickly provide necessary relief to the displaced.

¶ 02 This morning I tried to ask a question but no time was granted; I will use these four minutes. Yesterday, the State Minister of Digital Economy told this House that the tender for 15 million polycarbonate cards had been changed. I told him I had downloaded it two minutes earlier and that the tender closes on 24 November. This morning a new tender has been opened. I table both documents.

¶ 03 There is a big issue. Polycarbonate cards are expensive—generally USD 1–2 apiece. In response to another question today, the State Minister said printing a card costs about Rs. 800, which is about USD 2.65. Then do we need to carry the expense for 15 million cards? If we are digitizing with a Super App or a DigiLocker, the Unique ID would be in the smartphone. For those without smartphones during transition, we can give a simple PVC card costing 5–10 US cents, not polycarbonate. The Minister misled Parliament yesterday stating the 15 million was reduced to 5 million. The new Invitation for Bids only changes the bid closing date; “Other terms and conditions will remain unchanged.” I table the IFB.

¶ 04 It states: “The Chairperson, High Level Procurement Committee, Ministry of Digital Economy on behalf of Department for Registration of Persons, Sri Lanka now invites sealed bids from eligible and qualified bidders for the Procurement of Fifteen million (15,000,000) Pre-Printed Polycarbonate Cards for the issuance of National Identity Card.”

¶ 05 You said I have one more minute. Good.

¶ 06 If I am wrong, if I have misread it or there is a separate attachment, please respond.

¶ 07 Since the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock is present, one more point: At the Committee on Public Finance, we discussed that Paddy Marketing Board stores have 49,500 MT of paddy. It was said these would be milled and released. We pointed out to Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe that under the existing Regulation, only mills with capacity to mill 15 MT per hour could get allocations. He agreed to amend it. We now hear a Cabinet Paper has been submitted or passed. But with the Keeri Samba issue and rice prices, we know we must enable small and medium mills to compete with big chains. Through the Shakthi rice enterprise we organized about 300 small and medium mills into co-ops across eight districts. Please allow a portion of the 49,500 MT to be milled by small and medium millers as well.

¶ 08 Thank you.