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Move to extend leases to revive ailing plantations sector
View(s):Moves are underway to extend the leases on lands given to Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) in a bid to revive the ailing sector and recover millions of rupees owed by them to the Government, the Plantations Ministry said.Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe said three committees had been appointed to look into the performance of the leaseholders of state land — the 23 RPCs, the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB) and the State Plantations Corporation (SPC) — and how best the plantations could be made viable.
The committees are holding talks with the leaseholders and have called on them to submit proposals on developing the plantations land to generate profit. The Secretary said the committees were looking into the possibility of extending the leasing period from the present 53 years to 99 years, as requested by the companies.
Ceylon Planters’ Society Chief Russel Tennakoon said the leaseholders were not developing the plantation industry and not in favour of cultivating the land because of the short lease period that would expire in 2045. There are 23 RPCs managing tea, rubber, sugar, oil palm, cashew and palmyrah estates. The estates were given to them under a lease agreement in 1992 by the then government. Until then they were managed by the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB) and the State Plantations Corporation (SPC) despite losses running into millions of rupees.
In 2008, the then government appointed a three-member committee to look into the plantation sector problems. This committee found, among other issues, that the RPCs had not paid leasing rentals to the Treasury for several years and the arrears had accumulated to Rs.230 million as of March 2008.
The committee had then recommended that the lease deal should be extended up to 2061 but the companies had fought for a 99-year lease agreement.Ceylon Estate Staff Union General Secretary, Nath Amarasinghe said the plantations would be profitable if the RPCs took an interest and cultivated the land. The plantation managements were running the industry in a haphazard manner paying no heed to agricultural practices. “They seldom use fertilizers on the crops,” he said.