Sri Lankan government appoints Competent Authorities for the enterprises slated to be taken over

The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday received the approval from the Cabinet to appoint competent authorities to the 37 enterprises slated for the takeover by the government under the recently approved Assets Acquisition Act.



Accordingly, the government has appointed 6 Competent Authorities to manage the 37 enterprises, a Ministerial Sub Committee and an Officials' Committee consisting of six Officials to assist this Committee, to ensure the overall monitoring of the related aspects in a timely manner.

The Ministerial Sub Committee will be chaired by the Minister of Environment Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. Minister of Foreign Employment and Welfare Dilan Perera, Minister of Minor Export Crop Promotion Reginald Cooray, Minister of Productivity Promotion Lakshman Seneviratne and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Geethanjana Gunawardena are the other members of the Committee.

The Cabinet, acting on a proposal made by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance and Planning, has also approved the appointment of a three- member separate Compensation Tribunal under the chairmanship of the Chief Government Valuer to pay compensation within 12 months from the receipt of a claim by the Tribunal.

The recently passed Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Under Utilized Assets Act No 43 of 2011 will allow the government to take over the private enterprises that received government land or other assets and are underperforming now.

The government says many companies the list of the enterprises scheduled for takeover received many concessions from the Board of Investment (BOI) but failed to fulfill the commitments they made for further investment, exports or number of employees.

The two sugar industries slated to be taken over by the government, Pelwatte Sugar Industries and Sevanagala Sugar Industries will be managed by the District Secretary of Hambantota and the District Secretary of Monaragala respectively.

District Secretary of Badulla has been appointed as the Competent Authority for Colombo Commercial Company Limited (Badulla Property).

Attorney-at-Law Kalinga Indatissa will be overseeing the Lanka Tractors, Charmers Granaries, Ceylinco Leisure Properties, and Intertrade Lanka while Attorney-at-Law Senaka Walgampaya will administer the Hotel Developers Lanka which owns the Hilton Hotel in Colombo. Tuly Cooray is the Competent Authority for all other remaining Underutilized Assets that include closed BOI companies.

Acquisition of Pelwatte Sugar Industries,a listed company in the Colombo Stock Exchange and Sevanagala Sugar Industries, both profit-making industries, has become under severe opposition from Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Party.