By Chamodi Gunawardana

The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday demanded explanations from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on his directive to reverse the Seylan Bank shares transaction last Saturday.

JO MP Bandula Gunawardena said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe should reveal to the country why he ordered to reverse the transaction.

Last Friday 7.5% of Seylan Bank shares, owned by the Bank of Ceylon were sold for Rs. 1.3 billion, only to be a suspended later following the Prime Minister’s directive.

“The BoC has tried to sell its stake of Seylan Bank shares for Rs. 1.1 billion to a foreigner or a foreign company, but the deal was cancelled by the Prime Minister. He should tell people why he wanted to reverse the transaction,” he said.

Gunawardena also called on President Maithripala Sirisena to commission an unbiased investigation over on the accusation that the previous Government siphoned out Rs. 5000 notes amounting to Rs. 13 billion on the eve of presidential election in January 2015. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in different fora, has made public statements regarding the issue, alleging the previous regime siphoned out the money.  Gunawardena claimed that if the Rs. 13 billion worth of Rs. 5000 notes has been issued by the previous Government via an illegal mechanism, there should be 2600 of Rs. 5000 notes in the market.   “If the Government wanted to prove that the Rajapaksa regime has done something illegal with Rs. 5000 notes, they should investigate it via Police or Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) without passing comments in different fora. We urge President Sirisena to take action on the matter,” he said.

Gunawardena stressed that the Government has to reveal the truth behind the allegation as soon as possible as it creates a negative image of Lankan Rupee. 

Former Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal also rejected the allegation made by Karunanayake.

-Pic by Ruwan Walpola

JO defends selling duty free vehicle permits

The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday defended their decision to sell duty free vehicle permits as a means of recovering money spent on election campaigns.

Responding to reporters’ questions on the ethics of such a move, MP Bandula Gunawardena said that this privilege has been given to all Government officials since J. R. Jayawardene’s Government. 

“Most MPs finance their election campaigns through loans and borrowings and they have to pay the loans. 

Therefore we used money from the sale of permits to pay the debts,” he said. 

However, Gunawardena was not able to give a straightforward answer on whether the move was ethical or not.