Indo-Lanka sugar refinery in Hambantota awaits SDP status
View(s):Moving away from the policy of promoting local sugar production, the government is to grant Strategic Development Project (SDP) status for a sugar refinery with provision to import raw sugar.
India’s Shree Renuka Sugars is waiting for tax concessions under the Strategic Development Act to start the project, official sources said.
The company has entered into a 25-year agreement with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to start building a sugar refinery at an investment of US$ 220 million at the new industrial free port area of the Hambantota port.
According to Investment Promotion Ministry sources, a sum of $0.1 million has already been paid by the company.
The refinery to be operated by Lanka Sugar Refinery Company (Pvt) Ltd, is among seven large industries approved to be built at the port, a senior ports authority official told the Business Times.
The sugar processing capacity of the factory will be in the region of 2000 tonnes of raw sugar a day, which will be expanded to 3000 a day later, he revealed.
The company is expected employ between 1,500 to 2,000 people during its construction phase and 300 to 350 will be technical grades.
The project is in contrast to statements by the Minister of Sugar Industry Development Lakshman Seneviratne who has repeatedly emphasized the government’s policy of improving local sugar production and sugarcane cultivation.
The annual per capita consumption of sugar in Sri Lanka is around 30 kg and the current total annual requirement of sugar in the country is about 550,000 tons. By 2015, this amount is expected to rise to 600,000 tons.