The Hon. R.M. Ranjith Madduma Bandara

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, due to the policies and decisions of this government, the main laksha (sugarcane) industry in Monaragala is collapsing. You came to power promising to develop domestic industry and a production economy. After fuel, the next largest foreign exchange spend is on sugar—about Rs. 120 billion.

¶ 02 In J.R. Jayewardene’s era and under the Yahapalana government, four sugar mills operated—Hingurana (old), and newly established Pelwatte, Sevanagala, and Ethimale. We need 600,000 metric tons of sugar annually; these mills produce about 90,000 MT. Yet even that cannot be sold now. Pelwatte has over 20,000 MT unsold; Hingurana also over 20,000 MT; similarly Sevanagala and Ethimale. Ethanol too cannot be sold. Why? Because instead of protecting domestic industry, you import sugar. From June to September last year, 404,000 MT of sugar were imported; from January to September this year, 461,000 MT. Thus our farmers cannot sell their production.

¶ 03 The Minister has now started selling red sugar—branding himself the “Father of Brown Sugar.” But why apply the same import tax to both white and brown sugar? To protect domestic industry, impose higher duties on imported sugar. Also, VAT at 18 percent applies to every kilo of domestically produced sugar, while imports escape VAT—penalizing our farmer. In India and Pakistan, farmers do not bear VAT. Please end this injustice.

¶ 04 Prices of arrack made from domestically produced ethanol have not fallen; yet the price of ethanol has been forced down by importing maize (for ethanol production) from abroad, undermining local producers. Levy higher taxes on such inputs to protect domestic industry. Our fertilizer subsidies to cane farmers have also vanished; under our government, all farmers bought fertilizer at Rs. 1,500 per bag until the fertilizer crisis began. Today cane farmers pay Rs. 10,000–11,000 per bag. Please intervene.

¶ 05 As Hon. Dharmasena noted, about 5,000 employees at Sevanagala and Pelwatte have not had EPF/ETF paid; their futures are at risk. Address this urgently. From the President’s Budget speech, I feared he intends to close these mills; Pelwatte and Sevanagala—belonging to the Sri Lanka Sugar Company—appear on privatization lists. Are you going to privatize them?