SJB condemns move to privatise profitable state ventures

By Saman Indrajith

The SJB has voiced opposition to the government’s plans to privatise public ventures, including Sri Lanka Telecom and Sri Lanka Insurance.Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s Office, in Colombo, Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella said that Telecom and Insurance corporations were profit-making institutions. “There is logic behind proposing to privatise loss-making enterprises. That could be done after the workers in those enterprises are paid compensation and their interests looked after.  But the problem is that the government is planning to privatise profit-earning enterprises. The Insurance Corporation earned a 10,741-million-rupee profit last year alone. Telecom reported a profit around Rs 12,000 million. There is no need to restructure these institutions. The government has announced that Telecom, Insurance and SriLankan Airlines would be privatized. Everybody knows that SriLankan Airlines is making losses.

The loss during the first four months of this year was Rs 200 million. We remember that the same airline made huge profits when it was run by Emirates, which was asked to leave because it could not provide a ticket to a member of the then ruling family on priority basis. The decision to take it back from the Emirates had been caused by such personal problems.

Kiriella said that there were 52 loss-making public ventures and they suffered a loss of more than 500 billion rupees during the first four months of this year. “We are not against restructuring them after ensuring the interests of their workers. We, however, are against privatizing the Telecom and Insurance corporations.