Govt. must act swiftly to uplift cinema industry : Opp. Leader

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged the government to act swiftly in order to uplift the cinema industry which is in its doldrums today.

Addressing Parliament yesterday he said that the government had cut-off the expenditure for the cinema industry which stood at over Rs 35 million during his tenure as President.

The former President urged that the government should remove the taxes that are imposed on importing technical equipment related to the cinema industry.

"Swift measures should be taken to construct a state-of-the-art cinema theatre as well" Mr. Rajapaksa said.

He also claimed that the government has not taken any measures to ease the financial burden of private film production companies who have failed to screen over 80 films due to financial constraints.

"Steps must be taken atleast to pay half of the loans that have been obtained by these producers in order to produce a film" he remarked.

During his address, the opposition leader opined that improving infrastructure faciltites, developing the technical aspect of the industry, developing human resources, formulating a plan to produce and promote films, financially assisting film production activities, and recognising those in the cinema industry were some of the measures that could be taken to uplift this industry.

Mr. Rajapaksa also lamented by stating that the National Film Corporation has not been able to undertake the responsiblity in promoting these films due to the ban imposed on them to do so.

"The time has now come to rebuild Sri Lanka's cinema industry" he told Parliament adding that discussions must be held between the government and all stakeholders in the industry concerned.

Opposition Leader Rajapaksa signed off by posing a few questions pertaining to the problems in the cinema industry and called on the government to explain the measures that would be taken to resolve them.

In response, Minister Sajith Premadasa had said that the government would respond to these queries within a week.