10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

Jathika Jana balawegaya· National List· 18 June 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Questions: Questions 1–2 (School Projects, Ministers' Answers and Supplementaries) and Q.633/2025 (stood down), Q.636/2025 (Limestone Transport), Q.715/2025 (Kukuleganga Access Road), Q.724/2025 (Suwaseya Ambulance Service), Q.792/2025 (Bus Route Permits), Minuwangoda Shopping Complex, Tea Factories, and Social Media Provisions

Public FinanceInfrastructure
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The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake clarified that Sri Lanka Railways has not leased rail assets, but provides locomotives and wagons as needed on a market-rate service-hire basis. He stated that income from such services between 2015 and 2022 amounted to Rs. 273,409,766, citing annual figures, and advised that broader related policy proposals be discussed with the Minister of Industries.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 I suggest discussing your broader proposals with the Minister of Industries. Regarding your use of “lease,” there is no lease of rail assets; services are hired at market rates—locomotives and wagons as needed. The income earned by Sri Lanka Railways from 2015 to 2022 through providing services at market rates totals Rs. 273,409,766 (e.g., Rs. 54.8 million in 2015; Rs. 31 million in 2016; Rs. 18.6 million in 2017; Rs. 10.095 million in 2019; Rs. 7.3 million in 2020; cumulative to about Rs. 800 million by 2022 across services). Wider policy proposals can be taken up with the Minister of Industries.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Wednesday, 18 June 2025 ·No. 1751280704002343 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 18 June 2025. No. 1751280704002343. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/6749