|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 20 October 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
50 estates to be leased out The Government plans to lease the 50 non-viable plantation estates still under JEDB and SLSPC, through the Board of Investment (BoI), said Minister of Plantation Industries Lakshman Kiriella last week. Addressing the 66th Annual General Meeting of the Ceylon Planters' Society (CPS). Minister Kiriella said the Government could earn a minimum of Rs 150 million per year from such a deal, while not having to pay workers' salaries. These 50 estates remained under the JEDB (Janatha Estates Development Board) and the SLSPC (Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation) while the rest were leased to the 22 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) in 1990. Several investors were willing to pay handsome prices for the estates, the Minister said. The Asian Development Bank will provide $ 15 million credit line to the 22 RPCs to set up their own marketing arm. The outgoing CPS President Ajith de Silva was critical of the State organisations which assist the plantations sector, such as the Sri Lanka Tea Board, Tea and Rubber Research Institutes and the Coconut Board. Minister Kiriella called on the plantations companies to stop criticising State institutions and set up their own research and marketing divisions. Kiriella said he was willing to close down those institutions and finance the private sector to set up their own research and marketing organisations, funding such bodies with cess money. The Public Enterprise Reform Commission (PERC) had grossly undervalued the assets of the plantations leased out to the RPCs in 1996. Some shares were sold for Rs 10 each and the entire company for Rs 100 million. The buyers had lost no time selling the companies for around four times more. When plantations under JEDB and SLSPC are leased through BoI, the government will still retain forestry rights. There are complaints that the plantations companies are felling valuable timber and stripping plantations of their assets. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
