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| Tuesday, 20 July 2004 |
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Violations of Exchange Control practices Since I joined the private sector in April 2002 as director of some companies supervising the work of Inland Container Terminals and International Freight Forwarding, I came across some violations of exchange control practices relating to legal payments (or rather non-payments) by International Shipping Lines, resulting in loss of a colossal amount of foreign exchange to the country. Had I been in Parliament, I would have raised this matter therein with a view to correcting this practice but now I have to be content with a letter addressed to the relevant law-makers who are required to take stock of the dire situation and curb loss of foreign exchange earnings to the country, a salutary feature given the declining trend in the rupee value. I have come to know that this issue has been raised with the government on various occasions in the past dating from June 1998 but to my surprise, nobody seemed to have paid attention to it, leaving the issue still hanging by its own bootstraps. To put the issue in proper perspective, in terms of the Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 684/9 of October 17, 1991, prescribing regulations for Conservation of Foreign Exchange Earnings on Services rendered to Foreign Ship Owners, a Shipping Agent is required to levy any charge from a Principal for all services rendered, in terms of the tariff recommended by the Ceylon Association of Steamer Agents and approved by the Controller of Exchange. Nevertheless, many agents openly flout these regulations (a) by not paying the correct transshipment charges of US $ 15 per 20' container and US $ 40 per 40' container; (b) by charging inward commission on a fixed basis rather than on inward freight rates, resulting in a loss of foreign exchange; and (c) by applying to commercial banks for remittance to foreign ship owners of local charges that should generally be retained in the country for the services (such as local delivery charges, washing, cleaning and repair charges done by the Inland Container Terminals) rendered in Sri Lanka. In addition, I wish to invite attention to another glaring point. There is another parallel association called the Association of Container Terminal and Depot Operators which has also laid down a tariff of minimum charges, approved by the Exchange Control Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, to be imposed on Ship Owners by a Container Depot Operator. Unfortunately, these minimum charges are not gazetted, thereby losing its operative power, and, as a result, the ship owners get their local agents to undercut the tariff charges, much to the benefit of the ship owners and much to the loss of foreign exchange to the country. To add insult to injury, due to the pressure exerted by the Ship Owners, local internal depot operators are forced not to charge anything for storage of containers owned by ship owners, leading to further loss of foreign exchange, the foreign principals utilizing the space of country free of charge. Now that the government has already imposed a tax of 100 per cent in terms of the value on the transfer of land to foreigners, which is a welcome sign, I think it is imperative that the government give thoughts to the points raised herein. The issues raised in this letter need to be carefully examined by those in authority with a view to ensuring compliance with the minimum tariff rates by the ship owners. If the ship owners turn a blind eye to these regulations in the name of 'free trade policy', a point has to be driven out to them to say that they are sadly mistaken. Also, the Shipping Authority should request all the ships' agents and container depot operators to appoint special auditors to supervise their operations in order to ensure that they too comply with these requirements. DR. WIMAL WICKRAMASINGHE - Nugegoda. Greater Kandy water supply scheme It is heartening to hear that the present Government has given serious thought to augment the present supply of water in the Kandy District and more particularly to areas where no water is presently supplied. The village known as Moraluwakka in Gurudeniya which falls in Gangawata Korale is well-known for its milk and other by-products as each and every household in this village had their own cattle. It was a pleasant sight to see milkmaids carrying the milk cans on their heads to the town and on their way distributing the milk to all households with whom they have entered into a contract for a steady supply. Even some of the famous hotels in Kandy were dependent on these milk suppliers; around 10 a.m. we could see the men carrying the cans of Whey (Moru) everyday to some of the selected customers; this is a by-product after extracting the butter from the fermented milk which is high in minerals and proteins. The village thrived on the supply of milk and the people were leading a contended life; in their leisure hours they took to farming. Every household had their own wells and all were found to contain enough water to meet their entire requirements and the wells never ran dry. With the commissioning of the Mahaweli project, all these wells dried up including all rivulets and no water is found in any of these wells or in the rivulets. Some tube wells installed in this village are an eyesore and do not serve any purpose at all as there is no underground water for these tube wells to pump out. The farmers have given up their farming and the cattle, what they proudly possessed are either sold to other villagers in the outskirts where water is found or disposed off to butchers, and the villagers who were once prosperous are driven to abject poverty and we could see how they in the evening of their lives trod to fetch some water in the Talatuoya river which is about one to one and half miles away from this village. It is a pathetic scene to see how old and feeble men and women and children walk along to the river in the scorching sun to have a bath and bring some water in their pitchers on their return home. Successive Governments in the past have promised water to this village but nothing has been done; the irony being in the adjoining town which is about half a mile from this village is given pipe borne water. The entire population in this village is hopeful of getting water pursuant to this news item and our able Minister of Finance Dr. Sarath Amungama and Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardhana would go in the annals of the history of this village for their meritorious deed in providing water to this humble village. R. SHANMUGAM - Gurudeniya. Within twenty years of the identification of the disease AIDS, it had taken toll of many millions of lives all over the world. And it continues to march forward spreading its tentacles in every country in the world, including our country, so much so, that even the UNO had to take notice of its devastation and had to take steps to bring it under control. With all that, I feel that the disease is going to get the better of the entire world very soon as the steps taken to control it is only through the scientific process and not through the moral process. The non observance of moral behaviour is the cause of the disease unlike in the case of diseases like Dengue, Malaria etc., which spreads through the non adherence of scientific process of cleanliness. So, getting the people to use protective gadgets like condoms will not eradicate the disease, as the promiscuous sex among the people, without any moral awareness to restrain themselves, will outstrip the efforts of prevention by the use of condoms and other preventive processes. AIDS had originated from the immoral behaviour of the people. Getting the people to use preventive gadgets and allowing the original cause of promiscuous sex to continue will not bring about the desired results. The disease, I think, will march forward whatever preventive gadgets are produced and cures are found for the disease as long as the disease continues to originate among others by the process of promiscuous sex. I do not know whether animals are afflicted with AIDS. The animals, without any moral and health teachings from any philosophers or sages and scientists seem to be having some restriction on their sexual behaviour than human beings who boasts of higher intelligence and the benefit of enlightened teachings of great personalities among them. The moral aspect of the matter should go hand in hand with the scientific approach, if not given precedence, if this disease is to be eliminated. Arul - Colombo 13. Many members of the public had the opportunity to see on local TV channels both on July 14 and 15 the way the Kosgoda Police baton charged unarmed females who were protesting against Police inaction or partiality in respect of a road accident. Unlike in the Nuwara Eliya area in April this year when protesters looted shops, set fire to property and damaged both Police and private vehicles the protesters from Kosgoda did nothing of the sort. In Kosgoda area over 20 young females have been arrested and remanded while in the Nuwara Eliya incident not even a dozen protesters were arrested. The Police officers who acted in restraint were transferred . The PM was specially flown to Nuwara Eliya, the very next day while for southerners no VIP has come down from Colombo to see what had happened. A photograph in a Sinhala daily July 16 shows an injured policeman in civvies escorted out. This clearly illustrates the fact that there would have been policemen too in civvies among the protestars. Let's hope the Government and the IGP appoint an impartial panel to inquire into the reasons for this sad incident. THILAK FERNANDO - Colombo 6. If a few selected pensioners from each District had been paid their arrears of pension in terms of circular 06/2004 immediately after this circular was issued, the rest of the pensioners see no reason why their arrears of payment is delayed. Surely it is on the same basis of calculation the rest of the pensioners have to be paid. The Director of Pensions would have worked out one or two cases and issued circular instructions to all pension paying officers indicating the method of calculation for them to attend to the working and paying of the arrears. There are sufficient number of officers in each pension paying offices to attend to this work quickly. Today the monthly payment of pension is computerised and the volume of work per officer is much reduced. In the past monthly pension payment for each pensioner was handwritten and even the totalling of pension abstracts had been done through hand operating adding machine. After all in each pension paying office, an officer will be attending to 300 to 400 pensioners or even less. Working out the arrears at the rate of 5 files a day and an officer could complete about one hundred for a month and if a few hours overtime per month is granted, more cases could be completed in a month by each officer. I hope this will catch the eyes of the Director of Pensions to help old pensioners. M. S. T. - Dehiwela. Amalgamation of EPF member accounts The Department of Labour or the Central Bank (or both) are making a request to the members of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) through newspaper notices to get their multi accounts amalgamated by applying for it. Many employees or almost everybody who applied accordingly are facing a problem now. Accounts have not been amalgamated and the B Cards sent along with the applications (Form G) are misplaced. When these employees apply to withdraw their final benefits at the retirement, very same Department of Labour refuses to accept the application (Form K) without the B Card. It appears that the Department of Labour or the Central Bank (or both) are trying to do some totally unnecessary task while adding more work and confusion to already overburdened staff. When their systems are now improved a lot with the use of computers why do they still insist on requirements such as submitting all original B Cards with the application? It is true they try to settle the employees' funds in the most perfect way, but lot of red tape can be removed. Top officers should evaluate their systems often and take action to smoothen processes considering the daily raising work loads and the difficulties faced by the public. Take for instance waiting at two counters at the EPF Office in Colpetty to submit the Form K when the same officer at the first counter can complete the process. N. S. ATTANAYAKE - Kegalle. At a recent high-profile gathering I noticed that our National Flag was displayed incorrectly - laterally rotated - i.e. as you face the flag, the two vertical stripes depicting our minority races were on the right. Didn't anyone know the correct and the only way (with no exceptions whatsoever) to display the flag on a flat surface is with the stripes on the left? The simple reason is that when displayed with the stripes on the left, the lion holds the sword by the right paw and when the stripes are on the right the sword is held by the left paw. The sword should always be held by the right paw. S. D. - Polgasowita. |
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