The Ports, Shipping and Aviation Services Ministry distributed three containers of yellow orange that have been imported but not released from the port, to hospitals.
Accordingly, Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva decided to distribute this stock of yellow oranges to hospitals and officially handed them over to Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.
Health Ministry’s Medical Donations Director Dr. Anwar Hamdani said these oranges are planned to be distributed to about 60 provincial hospitals, including Colombo National Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital and the Maharagama Apeksha Hospital. There are nearly 24,000 kilos of oranges in one container of oranges and two such containers were unloaded at the Jaya Terminal belonging to the Port Authority. The Ports,
Shipping and Aviation Minister and Port Authority Chairman Keith D. Bernard handed over these two containers to the Health Minister. Another similar container unloaded at the yard of
Colombo International Terminal Company (CICT) has been handed over to the Health Minister by its General Manager Don Jayawardena. Accordingly, the three containers contain about 72,000 kilos of oranges and the gross commercial value of this is about Rs.72 million. Since these oranges are being given to hospitals free, the Finance Ministry has removed the relevant customs duties and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and (CICT) the private terminal have decided to release the goods without charging yard fees. Officials representing Sri Lanka Customs, Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation and Ministry of Health participated in this event.
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