PCoI seeks financial records of India's Flemingo Duty Free

Sri Lanka's Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) has sought the financial records of Flemingo Duty Free, India from the Indian Justice Ministry, as a part of its inquiry into the duty-free outlet.

The order to obtain the financial records by tomorrow (Sept 26) had been issued to the Secretary of the Sri Lankan Justice Ministry, when a complaint against the duty-free outlet had been taken up yesterday.

Ashoka Ranawala, a councillor, alleged that Sri Lanka had incurred losses running into millions as Flemingo Duty Free had submitted fraudulent documents to set-up its store at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

He also alleged that the company had functioned in violation of due procedure between 2006 and 2016.

Ranawala, who filed the complaint, told investigators that a company was required to have a market value of USD 100 million when bids were called for a duty-free store at the airport, and that Flemingo had shown a false market value of USD 299.6 million.