News
The Sunday Times gets invited for COL Cabinet sub-committee meeting; chairman says invitation was “an accident”
A Cabinet sub-committee on the Cost of Living this week was told by officials and SLFP Minister Mahinda Amaraweera that the country would be importing more rice than was required if it went ahead with estimates previously provided by officials to the sub-committee.
Rice imports were not revised with the anticipated rice harvest, the sub-committee chaired by UNP Minister Malik Samarawickrama was told. The revelation was made at the sub-committee following a front page exposure in the Sunday Times last week that the Industry and Commerce Ministry was continuing to issue permits to private sector rice importers despite the Agriculture Ministry claiming an anticipated bumper paddy harvest this year.
Agriculture Ministry officials were, however, not present at the high-level meeting attended by Ministers Malik Samarawickrama, Mangala Samaraweera, Mahinda Amaraweera and Rishard Bathiudeen and senior Government officials to discuss rising prices.
The Sunday Times was invited by the Industries and Commerce Ministry to attend the meeting where the newspaper report was discussed. The report said a glut of rice, the result of a bumper harvest, had not prevented the Ministry of Industry and Commerce from going ahead with more imports.
It said the move had caused concerns for the Agriculture Department, which had made recommendations to the Agriculture Ministry on the situation and sought its intervention.
As the news item report was raised, officials and members of the Cabinet sub-committee expressed their views on the current status of rice imports and the anticipated harvest of paddy.
Minister Amarawera disclosed that initially there were plans to import 500,000 metric tonnes of rice. “If we brought that amount of rice we would not have been able to sell those stocks’, he added.
The Minister pointed out that the rice imports were reduced, only after it was shown that the rice imports were too high. Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research Training Institute official Duminda Priyadharshanasaidstatistics indicated there would be rice stocks available for five months’ consumption, but the figure had now gone up to seven months of stocks.
The Sunday Times last week reported that according to projections based on the Agriculture Department a harvest of 2,316 million metric tonnes of paddy was expected and the stocks should be sufficient for seven months.
Finance Ministry Secretary R.H.S. Samaratunga questioned officials on the veracity of the statistics they were quoting, but Mr. Priyadharshana pointed out that the figures had already been published by Agriculture Department.
Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) officials pointed out that private sector imports were due to continue until the end of the month. They said that permission has been granted for 87,000 metric tonnes to be imported.
Following the comments made by officials, Minister Samarawickrema said the presence of the Sunday Times journalists was not required and described the invitation to the journalists as “an accident”