The financial fraud through the VFS transaction is bigger than the central bank robbery that happened in 2015, and the central bank robbery was done at a time when a parliamentary election was near and the VFS robbery was done at a time when a presidential election was near. Professor G. L. Peiris said that it is clear that it is for the elections. Sri Lanka Latest News
Mr. GL Peiris, Member of Parliament, said this when he attended the press conference held at Samagi Janabalawega Head Office.
He further commented,
“The biggest scam in the history of Sri Lanka is the VFS deal. Issuance of visas to tourists is a continuous process in Sri Lanka. It is not a new process. The issuing of visas to tourists coming to Sri Lanka was entrusted to Sri Lanka Telecom. Mobitel provided support for that. These institutions charge one dollar to issue a visa. But according to the new proposal, the issuing of visas was entrusted to VFS. Accordingly, VFS has charged 25 dollars after providing the service which was earlier charged a fee of 1 dollar.
VFS issues a visa to a tourist from Malaysia to India for a fee of 50 cents. Accordingly, the VFS company charges 50 times more than the amount charged from Malaysia to tourists coming to Sri Lanka. VFS has given the contract to issue visas to Sri Lanka for 16 years. Also, the visa fee that is issued for $25 is increasing year by year. The loss to Sri Lanka through this is approximately 1.4 billion US dollars. This amount is about 37 per cent of the total aid amount received by Sri Lanka from the International Monetary Fund.
According to that, the Sri Lankan courts are coming forward to protect the money of the people of Sri Lanka. For that, the government of Sri Lanka is launching massive attacks on the Sri Lankan judiciary. The President said in the Parliament that the jurisdiction lies with the Parliament. The President said that he can accept the decisions of the Supreme Court if he likes and reject them if he likes. Also, the President declares that Supreme Court judges should be called to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee. A planned program is being implemented to disable the judiciary because the journey towards a dictatorial rule is being hindered. In this regard, international organizations have also presented criticisms.
Also, a similar scam happened in 2015 through the VFS deal. That is the central bank robbery. The fraud through the VFS deal is bigger than the central bank robbery. However there is a similarity between these two transactions. The central bank robbery was carried out a few months before the parliamentary elections. The VFS fraud is carried out around the time of the presidential election. In this way, money is sought for votes through fraud.
The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to stop the transaction with VFS. Accordingly, the Supreme Court has informed the Immigration Department to issue visas as before. Through that, the country has been able to avoid the huge financial loss. I am happy with the judgment given by the Supreme Court regarding the issuance of visas.
Also, after September 21st, under the government established under the leadership of Mr Sajith Premadasa, all persons responsible for the VFS money fraud will be brought to justice. Efforts are also being made to collect the looted money from them. The law is strictly implemented for that. Under the leadership of Mr. Sajith Premadasa, a strong program to recover people’s looted money is being carried out.
