Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) have responded positively to the request made by the Ministry of Plantation Industries to pay before June 30 their lease rental dues amounting to Rs.242 million.
Ministry Secretary Indrani Sugathdasa told the Sunday Times FT that a sum of Rs. 151 million has already been paid by 20 private sector managed plantation companies and they have agreed to pay the balance as soon as possible.
She said that all these companies have paid their dues up to 31st December 2008. In a recent press release, Secretary General of Planters’ Association of Ceylon Malin Goonetileke says that the RPCs are all public listed companies who have paid taxes due to the government and have not defaulted or evaded taxes as claimed by Plantations Minister D.M. Jayaratne.
The issue at hand is the payment of lease rentals due to the government which ran into arrears based on a decision taken by former Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, where compensation receivable by the RPCs on lands acquired by the govt for public purposes could be set off against these rentals. This decision was reversed several years later resulting in an accumulation of the rentals payable to the government.
Considering that there is provision clearly incorporated in the lease agreements entered into between the government and the RPCs for the recovery of outstanding lease rentals, there is no necessity whatsoever to devise a system of recovery at this juncture, Mr Goonetileke said, adding that the RPCs are yet to get compensation for land acquisition dues.
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