A petition has been filed with the Supreme Court demanding that a formal probe be made into all those responsible for the current economic crisis in the country and an order be issued for appropriate penalisation.
Four persons including Chandra Jayaratne, a former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce have filed the petition.
The petitioners point out that the current crisis was caused by the short-sighted economic policies and mismanagement of the Rajapaksa regime and demand the Supreme Court to take immediate action against those held accountable.
Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, former governors of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) W.D. Lakshman and Ajith Nivard Cabraal and several members of the Monetary Board of the CBSL have been cited as respondents to the case.
The petitioners also filed a motion demanding that an order be made barring the accused from leaving the country.
The Supreme Court decided that the petition be taken up on July 27.
Sri Lanka: Opposition leader ready to run for presidency
Sri Lanka’s main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has told the BBC he intends to run for president, once Gotabaya Rajapaksa steps down.
This comes after his Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party held talks with allies to get support for the move.
Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis which has brought thousands to the streets since March.
The country has run out of cash and is struggling to import basic items like food, fuel and medicine.
President Rajapaksa announced that he plans to resign this week, and the Speaker of parliament has said lawmakers will choose the next president on 20 July.
Mr Premadasa told the BBC that his party and allies agreed he should be “putting my nomination for the position of presidency, if a vacancy occurs”.
He lost the presidential election in 2019, and would need the support of the governing alliance MPs to win.
He is banking on getting it due to the popular discontent against Mr Rajapaksa and his family, who have dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than two decades.
The country’s inflation rate reached a whopping 55% in June, and millions of people are struggling to make a living.
Mr Premadasa said he was ready to take part in an all-party interim government.
The SJB leader has been criticised for refusing to take the post of prime minister when it was offered to him in April. His rival Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed – but has also indicated he would resign to make way for a unity government.
Mr Premadasa described the current situation in Sri Lanka as “confused, uncertainty and total anarchy”, saying it needs “consensus, consultation, compromise and coming togetherness”.
Image caption, Sajith Premadasa said the nation needed consensus and compromise
The country’s usable reserves have dropped to around $250m (£210m), according to local media reports.
The crippling shortage of fuel has devastated public transport. There are rolling power cuts as power plants lack enough fuel to function. Schools are closed this week as well due to the fuel crisis. Many people are trying to leave the country.
Mr Premadasa has conceded that there are no quick fixes.
To return the economy to 2019 levels would take approximately four to five years, he said, adding that his party had an economic plan to overcome the crisis.
“We are not going to hoodwink the people. We are going to be frank and present a plan to get rid of Sri Lanka’s economic ills,” Mr Premadasa said.
But the protesters at the Galle Face site in Colombo say that all 225 members of parliament are responsible for the current situation, and they want a new beginning with fresh and energetic people in politics.
The special discussion set to be held between leaders of the ‘non-partisan’ struggle and the political party leaders in Parliament at 2.30 pm today (12) has been postponed due to non-disclosed reasons, reports said.
The party leaders who attended the meeting convened by the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs yesterday agreed to meet the leaders of the struggle.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs scheduled to be held today has also been dragged in.
The leaders of the struggle held a discussion with Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena today and 25 leaders of the struggle joined the event.
Six members of the Rajapaksa family incuding President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa have arrived at the Mattala Airport to leave Sri Lanka, sources claimed.
These Rajapaksa family members have arrived at the Mattala Airport in two Bell helicopters and are prepared to leave the island in a private jet.
Early reports claimed that Basil Rajapaksa could not leave the island through the Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport.
Some of the properties at Temple Trees were stolen after it fell into the hands of the protesters, the Prime Minister’s Media Unit alleged. In a complaint lodged with the Kollupitiya Police station, the PM’s Media Unit alleged that two laptop computers, a video camera and several other camera equipment are missing.
Following the historic taking over of Temple Trees three days ago, its daily operations came to a standstill, but a part of the Prime Minister’s Media Unit is still functioning.
Meanwhile, certain damages were caused to walls of some buildings like holes dug in between and a large number of documents were destroyed, the Unit added.
The consignment of fertiliser received from India has passed trial and can be used for local agriculture, the National Fertiliser Secretariat told the Agriculture Ministry.
These fertiliser stocks were subjugated to a series of trials in a laboratory in Sri Lanka and a standard report was obtained regarding the percentage of biuret that should be contained in fertiliser. Accordingly, it was confirmed that the biuret percentage is 0.9 per cent.
Conclusively, the National Fertiliser Secretariat has informed the Ministry that the new stock can be used for agriculture with no problem.
An early stock of fertiliser received to Sri Lanka revealed its biuret percentage to be 0.65 per cent as confirmed by three international reports.
The stock will be distributed through the Secretariat for crops including paddy and corn.
Following the country’s declaration of bankruptcy recently , Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, reportedly announced his resignation this week not long after Prime Minister Wickremesinghe announced he was stepping down, adding yet another blow to the country’s reputation while the apparel sector looks to assure buyers of its stability.
The nation has dominated global headlines in recent months, currently battling its worst economic crisis in 70 years. Sri Lanka’s apparel industry trade body JAAF warned export earnings in the clothing sector for the June-August period can be expected to fall by 20-25% and it is likely to miss the $6bn export target for the year.
It is a far cry from where the country was at the turn of 2022. In March, Sri Lanka was eyeing global garment exports of US$8bn by 2025. It came after the country’s apparel export earnings for January 2022 rose to US$487.6m, the highest in five years.
The apparel sector has hugely benefitted from rigorously applied safety measures following Covid, as well as digital product development technology adoption that helped mitigate supply chain disruptions.
But with the current state of affairs, the industry’s 2030 vision to transform Sri Lanka into a global apparel hub by that year looks bleak.
With apparel accounting for on average 40% of Sri Lanka’s total export revenue, there is an urgent need to maintain buyers’ confidence in the industry.
The global apparel sector is also well placed to help Sri Lanka resurface from this incredibly challenging period and experts are urging brands to commit to their Sri Lankan suppliers.
Though with challenges including a fuel shortage which could potentially impact shipment delivery time, there certainly will need to be an element of patience exercised.
Some brands have already expressed their support of their Sri Lankan partners. The president of Italian fashion group Calzedonia, said he had faith in the resilience of Sri Lanka’s apparel industry and planned to increase sourcing from the South Asian island nation
A spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) acknowledged to Just Style in an exclusive comment that the fuel shortage was “very concerning” and said apparel exporters are “managing day-to-day operations to meet the Production time “.
“Currently, several plants have sufficient fuel stocks to meet ongoing production needs,” the spokesperson added.
Cash starved government has partially reversed a hasty decision of ill-conceived national non-scientific experiment in organic agriculture compelling the treasury to pay billions of rupees for organic fertiliser stocks procured from local manufactures last year .
Organic fertiliser producers have demanded the finance ministry to pay Rs 14 billion for their supplies fulfilling 60 percent of the solid and 90 percent of liquid organic fertiliser requirement for the Yala season.
As a result of spending all most all the allocation of the agriculture sector for organic farming with no avail, the treasury was left with a meagre sum of Rs. 3.8 billion for the payment of organic fertiliser procurement to local producers although their bill was massive Rs 14 billion.
In 2021, the Government has allocated Rs. 50.7 billion on food crops such as paddy, maize, potatoes, big onions, vegetables and fruits including expenditure on organic fertiliser subsidy amounting to Rs. 35 billion.
Agriculture Ministry has announced compensation on the directions of the President for more than a million paddy farmers whose crops failed under an ill-advised scheme to become the world’s first 100-percent organic farming nation.
Therefore the treasury has released a sum of Rs. 40 billion to compensate farmers for the losses incurred during the Yala and Maha seasons 2021 due to the government’s policy of banning the use of chemical fertilisers, a senior official of the treasury said.
After this payment from Rs. 50.7 billion allocation only Rs. 10.7 billion was left with the treasury to make payments for organic fertiliser manufacturers and subsidies for other cultivators of maize, potatoes, big onions, vegetables and fruits, he disclosed.
At that time Sri Lanka was about to face adverse impacts on food security, agriculture industry revenue, foreign exchange earnings and rural poverty pushing the country into a serious crisis.
This was the direct result of shifting the existing local agricultural practices to organic farming without considering the technological, environmental, and economic costs and benefits, several treasury officials pointed out.
Further a sum of Rs. 3.8 billion was spent to purchase organic fertiliser from local producers during the Maha cultivation season last year, finance ministry data shows.
The cost to import nano nitrogen liquid fertiliser (Nano urea) from India was Rs. 9 billion while another sum of Rs.1.3 billion was paid to import 30,000 tonnes of potassium chloride fertiliser. After settling this expenditure amounting to Rs 14.1 billion, the treasury has exhausted the allocation for the agriculture sector and there was no money for the payment to fertiliser manufacturers, senior official pointed out.
The local producers have supplied their stocks in accordance with proper tender requirements on the recommendation of Agriculture Director General and under the supervision of the national fertiliser secretariat, President of the Environment-Friendly Fertiliser Producers Association, Shammi Kirinde disclosed.
Although the total value of the stock was Rs 22 million in accordance with the tender documents, they have been able to supply fertiliser to the value of Rs 16 billion due to urgent need of farmers, he said adding that even after handing over the necessary documents to relevant authorities, only a sum of Rs 2.4 billion has been paid as a part payment.
A National Fertiliser Secretariat top official who wished to remain anonymous told the Business Times that a stock of organic fertiliser worth of Rs 12 billion has been distributed among farmers and Rs 2 billion has been paid due to financial constraints..
The treasury is releasing money on the basis of Rs 100 million per fertiliser manufacturer and the Secretariat has paid asum of Rs 2 billion to them up to now, he revealed.
The fertiliser stocks have been handed over to the authorities in accordance with the government tender and the agreement with the Lak Pohora Company and Colombo Commercial Fertilisers Ltd, Secretary of the Fertiliser Producers Association Shaminda Kankanamge claimed.
Although the payment should be paid within 28 days after handing over the stocks the authorities have so far failed to make their payments, he added.
He noted that several manufacturers have spent Rs 600-700 million for the organic fertiliser production and others had to bear Rs100-200 million and they had to pay hundreds of thousands of rupees for plastic container and bags suppliers and raw material suppliers.
These manufacturers have become destitute as most of them had borrowed money from banks for seed capital for their production plants , he said, claiming that around 500,000 direct and indirect employees engaged in the process are suffering without any payments at present.
