Leader of the Opposition Mr Sajith Premadasa said in Parliament today (23) that a non-transparent method has been adopted in finding buyers for the sale of the Telecom Company. Sri Lanka Latest News
Mr. Sajith Premadasa said that there is no responsibility, accountability or diversity regarding the method chosen by the buyers and one of the two applicants who were announced to be suitable has been disqualified and many people have doubts about whether the sale of the telecom company is a crony capitalist political transaction.
There have been many irregularities in the calculation of the assets of the telecom company the calculation of the assets has been done by both the Telecom Institute and the International Finance Corporation and the government has assessed only the land and buildings of the telecom institute, the copper cable network, fibre cable network, the island that provides telecom services. Mr Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, said that the telecom company has a large amount of assets such as equipment, transmission towers, and telecom training centres in nearly 500 centres all over the country, but the assessment calculation implemented by the government has been implemented with errors.
The value of the total amount of land owned by the telecom company has been calculated as 400 million and the share price has been decided, but according to the financial report of the telecom company in 2023, the correct value of the land is 5800 million rupees and the telecom company strongly condemns the decision to sell the telecom company underestimating the value of the land. Mr. Sajith Premadasa said.
The leader of the opposition said that Telecom is a company that has made profits for many years and has given nearly 25,000 million rupees as taxes and dividends to the exchequer and that loss-making companies should be restructured in some way, but the government is working to sell profit-making companies.
Mr. Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, said that during the period of Covid, the telecom company made a net profit of 12 billion and the telecom company became a loss-making company because the former chairman was fired from that position.
