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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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DLB moves to Rs. 405m complex The Development Lotteries Board (DLB) celebrates 23 years in business with the purchase of the office complex of the National Paper Company Ltd building at Union Place, Colombo, at a cost of Rs 405 million. This capital investment had obtained cabinet approval through the Public Enterprise Reform Commission, DLB Chairman, W.P.S. Jayawardena said. Hitherto, DLB occupied several buildings on lease and with the acquisition of this 40,000 square foot multi-storeyed structure, which was first known as the Eastern Paper Mills Corporation building, the DLB will move all its departments under one roof. The move will help improve the efficiency of the organisation, cut down time and costs, director D. S. Gunarathne said. The DLB chairman saw the purchase of a national enterprise property by another national body as public resources remaining within the public. Further, Rs. 16 million in stamp duty paid to the Western Provincial Council on the sale of this property will add to the financial strength of this provincial council, Jayawardena said. DLB is one of the fastest developing government enterprises in Sri Lanka, Jayawardena told the media. DLB is owned by the President's Fund and Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund. This helped DLB which started on a small scale with capital investments from these two funds to create thousands of self-employment opportunities for ticket sellers. From 1994 to end-2004, DLB credited Rs. 5.36 billion to the President's Fund. In 1994, the amount was Rs. 215 million and in 2004, Rs. 953.3 million. All profits gained from DLB are credited to the President's Fund and 50 percent of it to the Mahapola Scholarship Fund. The money credited to the President's Fund is utilised in projects to uplift the standard of living among the Sri Lankan people, especially the rural communities, while providing immense service to education and health. The funds also support sports, arts, religion and welfare activities, Jayawardena said. The DLB gave away huge amounts of money as prizes for this year. For the Jayoda lotteries which draws are held on Monday and Thursday the amount was Rs. 550 million; Development lottery (Tuesday and Friday) Rs. 810 million, Saturday Fortune (Wednesday and Saturday) Rs 780 million. When Sri Lanka was hit by the tsunami the DLB helped 87 affected dealers with compensation of Rs. 10,000 million each. Further, 56 dealers were given sales outlets each worth Rs. 34,343 to restart sales. Under the insurance scheme for the dealers and distributors the families of the deceased dealers were compensated. From the inception of this project in the year 2003, DLB was able to give away Rs. 200,000 each to the dependants of 16 dealers. Dependents of five deceased dealers were given Rs. 400,000 each, Jayawardena said. - EL |
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