Columns

As the increased Value Added Tax (VAT) on a variety of items took effect this week, there was good news at least for the Governors lording over the country’s provinces.

Though almost all of them have remained in office for less than two years, they will all receive duty free permits to import cars. The decision has been made by the Cabinet of Ministers. It came days ahead of the Government’s second budget.

The Governors thus join the exclusive club of those entitled to duty free permits. They include parliamentarians, doctors and state sector officers who have completed six years active service and have been confirmed in “senior level” executive post. The latter are entitled to what is being described as “concessionary vehicle permits.”

Some of the ministers and parliamentarians who received duty free permits and imported luxury vehicles have shamelessly sold them in the open market at exorbitant rates.

Ministers turn headlights on Illegal assembly of vehicle
Sporadic Police raids on motor garages, that too on tip offs, have laid bare how vehicles are being locally assembled with body panels and engine parts obtained from local dealers.

In the recent past it has come to light that such vehicles are mostly Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) like Prado and Pajero, ones that are in demand. Some of the licensing of such vehicles, it has come to light, has been through surreptitious means using numbers of vehicles that had met with accidents and thus have been condemned or those out of use. Most, an official said yesterday, were operating without registration.
The fact that such assembly is causing revenue loss to the Government has now begun to dawn on the authorities. Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva wants to regulate such assembly under strict conditions including the imposition of a tax.
The Cabinet of Ministers has decided that a subcommittee examine the different aspects and make their recommendations known within two weeks.

Chaired by Minister de Silva, the subcommittee includes Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Law and Order and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayake and Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrema.

The Transport and Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary will serve as the sub committee’s secretary. The subcommittee has been authorised to co-opt the services of any official or expert, deemed necessary, for deliberations.

On whose side is this big-talking young buck?
The customarily garrulous young buck was at the important conclave where Government VIPs gather every week because his boss, a customarily quiet but equally controversial one, was abroad.

When the discussion centred on how only sprats are being caught and the sharks are let off under the Government’s anti-corruption drive, the ambitious ‘hit man’ as his colleagues now call him for his ‘sterling performance’ on issues that have bonded him and his party, turned to his usual self.

He charged that a former minister was being allowed to go scot free over matters that should be treated as homicide. The one in charge of the subject however explained gently in Sinhala that there were “serious cases” as well as those which were “light”.
“So, how do you describe a forged passport case, serious or light,” asked the ‘hit man’ much to the amusement of others. He claimed this case too is suppressed. The in-house foray between the two young men was the talking point even after the conclave ended.
“On whose side is he”? asked one of the participants.

President proposes Grama Rajya system
President Maithripala Sirisena has sought the views of his ministers on the establishment of a Grama Rajya system.
As the name implies, the project is to develop villages by decentralising governance to those areas.

Foreign Affairs Ministry can’t move to Jawatte
A move to construct buildings to shift the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Colombo’s Jawatte area has run into difficulties.
It was originally decided by the Cabinet of Ministers on September 6 that it should be constructed adjoining the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management.

However, it has now been pointed out that several units falling under the purview of the Ministry of Irrigation and some under the Ministry of Mahaveli Development and Environment are located in premises where the new Foreign Ministry buildings are to be located.
The Cabinet of Ministers has, therefore, decided that any plans to go ahead with construction work be stopped. An official Committee has been appointed to examine the matter further.

It is headed by Irrigation and Water Resources Management Ministry Secretary and includes Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary, a senior officer nominated by the Secretary to the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and the Divisional Secretary of Thimbirigasyaya.

Cabinet rejects Rajapakshe’s controversial amendment to CPC
Once more, an ambitious campaign by Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to push for amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code to deprive suspects arrested and detained by Police access to lawyers prior to recording their statement has come a cropper.

The Cabinet of Ministers at their weekly meeting last Tuesday approved amendments to the Code but rejected the amendment that sought to prevent access to lawyers. Interestingly, the decision came as a delegation from the European Union, which is demanding that such provision be not included, was in Colombo to study the current political and economic situation. The move is a prelude to the restoration of the GSP Plus tariff preferences.

Minister Rajapakshe had on October 11 sought, as reported in these columns last week:
To forward the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, to the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Legal Affairs (anti-corruption) and Media in Parliament, seeking its views; and To submit the views of the said Oversight Committee to the Cabinet of Ministers, enabling it to instruct the Legal Draftsman to incorporate amendments, if any, based on the views expressed by the Oversight Committee.

UN pays for SL Army’s repair costs
They were imported for use by the Sri Lanka Army during the separatist war and lay idle needing repairs.
Now a fleet of five Wheeled Armoured Personnel carriers (WMZ 551B), imported from China, are to be refurbished. This is for use by the Sri Lanka Army contingent that will travel for peace keeping operations in Mali, a landlocked nation in West Africa.
China’s state owned NORINCO (China North Industries Corporation) manufactured these amphibious armoured personnel carriers for China’s People’s Liberation Army. Sri Lanka was among the countries to which they were exported.

A Sri Lankan Army contingent has been requested through the UN Peace Keeping Force by the Malian Government which is facing a rebellion by a group called Azawad on the country’s northern border.
The full repair costs of the armoured personnel carrier and fee for their use are to be paid by the UN Peace Keeping office.