Krrish still to complete Transworks land deal
The Krrish square mixed development project is still to make the full payment of US$449 million (Rs. 4.99 billion) to finalise the Transworks House land lease with the Urban Development Authority, a senior government minister said
Although the Delhi-based Krrish group took more than one year from the scheduled date to complete the deal, the government is not losing as the company has to pay 12 per cent interest for the delayed payments, Minister of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told a media conference in Colombo this week.
“We have nothing to worry about the delay in payments; in fact we should be happy about it,” he said in lighter vain.
The company has so far paid $411 million and has been given notice to pay the balance amount of $$38 million soon, Minister Abeywardena said, adding that he would not issue the relevant gazette notification giving it a strategic development project status which provides several tax concessions to the company until the final payment is made.
He told journalists that the company had agreed to pay the lease amount in full by the end of October, but no payments have been made so far after the September payment of Rs. 150.8 million to Urban Development Authority.
Krrish Group, whose project has been marred by alleged kickbacks, entered into agreements, with the Board of Investment and the Urban Development Authority in August 2012, to construct a mixed development project at the Transworks House land in Colombo Fort.