The government is likely to take up for discussion next month the budget proposal on limiting land leased and managed by Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) to 5000 acres. At present this is only a statement and Treasury is expected to initiate a discussion on this matter, Plantation Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe told the Business Times [...]

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The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Tea budget proposal for discussion in January

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The government is likely to take up for discussion next month the budget proposal on limiting land leased and managed by Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) to 5000 acres.

At present this is only a statement and Treasury is expected to initiate a discussion on this matter, Plantation Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe told the Business Times on Thursday.

In the 2017 budget, a proposal was made to limit the acreage of the RPCs to 5000 acres in a bid to increase productivity as the companies were said to be lagging, which has been criticised by RPCs as ‘ill-thought’.

He noted that they were not consulted in the drafting of this proposal and that the Treasury was likely to take it up for consideration in January.

Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayaka at a media briefing recently stated that this matter would be at the discretion of the companies and that it was not a binding factor.

However, the plantation companies are still unaware of the modalities of this budget proposal, and in this respect, believe that the government needs to address other more contentious issues like obtaining weedicide than limiting the size of an RPC.  -(SD)

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