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Railway Dept. to obtain unpaid rent to cover fuel expense

by Rajmi Manatunga

The Railways Department has decided to partially settle its fuel bill of nearly 38 million owing to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) by obtaining the unpaid rent of Departmental land occupied by the CPC.

The CPC is among a number of state entities including ministries, banks and corporations that has failed to pay the rent for land given on lease to them by the Railways Department.

A spokesman for the Department told the Daily News that they will request the CPC to cut off Rs 24.6 million from the fuel bill in order to cancel the outstanding rent the Corporation owes to the Railways Department.

"There are 36 files dealing with lands rented out to the CPC by the Department and steps have already been taken to re-estimate the value of these lands. However, out of them only 35 can be estimated since there is a legal dispute over one block. The Evaluation Department has agreed to give priority to railway land in order to expedite the estimation," he said adding that the figure might change in future as the value of land has increased from the last estimation.

Out of the 13,638 acres owned by the Department around 2,616 acres have been given on lease to various institutions and sources said that most of these lands were utilized by these entities without making the payment. The Department last month launched a special programme to ensure proper management on these lands.

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