The Hon. Lal Premanath
Hon. Lal Premanath raised concerns about the use of cess funds for the tea industry, noting its importance to millions of people including smallholders, factory owners, and workers. He said fertilizer, replanting support, and nursery assistance had not been provided adequately or on time, while acknowledging the recent provision of MOP fertilizer. He asked whether substantial funds would henceforth be allocated for tea industry development and whether the Government has a specific programme to strengthen the sector as a stable foreign exchange earner.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Second supplementary: Historically, cess supported the upliftment of the tea industry, which employs nearly 3 million people directly and indirectly—smallholders, factory owners, workers. Funds were channeled through those three institutions. There is widespread concern: fertilizer was not provided on time; replanting support and nursery assistance were lacking. I thank you for arranging MOP fertilizer recently—farmers appreciate it. Will substantial funds henceforth be used for the tea industry’s development? Tea brings in billions in dollars—like tourism, it can be a stable earner. Do you have a program or initiative?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 22 January 2025 ·No. 1739261035021938 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Lal Premanath. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 January 2025. No. 1739261035021938. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/5673