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| Thursday, 27 January 2005 |
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Letters | |
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How to apprehend jewellery thieves Following the tsunami tragedy there must be more than thousand cases of removing jewellery, worn by victims and as such the authorities should take stringent measures to bring the offenders to book. No wonder, Sri Lanka has been receiving a deluge of foreign aid, because the whole world would have come to know how penurious and destitute we are, for almost all the passengers who were perished, with the train in which they were travelling, not wearing any item of jewellery even when on a holiday trip. Had they worn any jewellery at the time of their demise, there should be at least 10-15 kilos of gold recovered along with them. It is an open secret that, good samaritans have removed all the valuables from the dead bodies and those must still be in their possession. I am sure, nobody will dare unless he is insane, to wear any piece of jewellery if known to have been removed it from a dead human being, and would never like his family members to wear them either. So no doubt that this ill-gotten wealth would end up at pawning centres or jewellery shops. The pawning centres will have a thriving business in days to come and if the Government is interested, at least a few miscreants can be exposed by taking the following steps: i. All the pawning centres and jewellery shops must be instructed to be extra vigilant when articles are brought for pawning and a declaration form by way of an affidavit has to be obtained from the pawner, which must include the date and the place of purchase, the weight and the value at the time of purchase, his NIC number, permanent residential address etc. The original receipt of purchase too has to be submitted, of which a photocopy will be taken and the original will be returned. ii. No one should be permitted to pawn jewellery, in a place, outside his residential Divisional Secretary Division / District. For e.g. a person residing in Galle, should pawn his jewellery only in that district. iii. Any person who fails to produce original receipt of purchase, must in his affidavit state, as to how, when and from where he came by that item and even if he produces his NIC, his fingerprints too should be obtained in the pawn register. iv. If the pawner happens to be a member of police or armed forces, a copy of the affidavit has to be forwarded to their respective head of the dept/unit by the pawnee. v. For people who come under iii above, only a portion of the market value should be paid at the first instance and the balance to be paid in a week or so. vi. The Divisional Secretaries should be given additional teeth to supervise the pawning centres in their areas to ensure above procedure is properly followed. I am sure no genuine customer would grumble, though they will be little more inconvenienced over the proposed system, and only the crooks and chain snatchers would cry their hearts out. H. M. GUNATILAKE, Additional District Registrar, Arachchikattuwa Medium of instruction - a problem? The medium of instruction in Government schools and non fee levying schools after the take over of schools has been decided by the State to be either in Sinhala or Tamil depending on the parentage of children who seek admission. After the take over of the schools it was found difficult to continue the English medium for want of teachers etc..and reduced the medium of instruction to namely, Sinhala and Tamil. With the introduction of free education and Sinhala as the official language sharp drop was experienced in the study of English. The trend continued till the study and use of information techniques rapidly spread and the use of English as a language became very vital. The above trend continued and students and persons using the information techniques in Banks, commercial institutions and many other establishments demand more and better English. With the demand of more English, some National schools started teaching two or three subjects in the English medium after Grade 5. A few private fee-levying schools and the International schools started teaching in the English medium. The fact remains the national schools cannot start English medium classes from the beginning on account of restriction the medium of instruction to only Sinhala and Tamil. There is no provision for a third medium of instruction namely English. The non-fee levying assisted schools are trying to circumvent the media rule by starting English medium classes from Grade I where all subjects are taught in English. But English is not taken, as the first Language is either Sinhala or Tamil. This position becomes a drag on the performance of the English medium students. What is the solution? It is up to the authorities when English is introduced as medium of instruction to get the Ministry of Education to change the policy to include English also as a medium of instruction. This may be considered by authorities with special permission after the change of policy to include English as a medium of instruction. It will be realistic and practical not to delay the change in policy regarding the media of instruction. C. M. A. Jeffrie, Colombo 6 According to the press notification dated 30.12.2004, the following could be observed. Effective 1.1.2005, the value of goods determined for the purpose of VAT will be increased by: (i) 5% mark up on CIF value, and (ii) PAL (Port and Airport Development Levy). However it should be noted that effective 19.11.2004, the Customs Dept. has included PAL (which was increased from 1 to 1.5% effective that date) for the computation of VAT. Therefore it has to be accepted there has been an overcharge of VAT from importers. There is no objection in the case of non-essential items, as the VAT paid at Customs could be claimed as input credit. However, in the case of essential items such as sugar, dhal, milk food etc. The VAT paid @5% effective 19.11.2004 cannot be claimed as input credit. Therefore importers of essential goods are entitled to a refund in respect of VAT paid by them on PAL during the period 19.11.2004 to 31.12.2004. If this submission is acceptable to the department, the monitoring of refunds could be simplified by adopting the following procedure: (a) Importers of essential items could submit an application to the Director General of Customs giving the relevant particulars, such as CUSDEC No., Date, Value of Import, VAT and PAL payments etc. (b) The Director General of Customs could either issue a separate certificate to the importer confirming the PAL paid and the VAT paid on PAL or endorse these particulars on the application submitted by the importer. (c) The importer could remit a copy of this certificate to the Department of Inland Revenue and claim the VAT refundable as input credit against future payments. The original could be retained for inspection by the department as and when required. I presume the Department of Inland Revenue will look into this matter and advise the public accordingly. S. R. BALACHANDRAN, Council Member, The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka It all happened a few days after Sri Lanka's ill-fated 'Day After Tomorrow' when I received an overseas call from an old friend, a former Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and a well-known actor on stage and the silver screen. Karu, a senior schoolmate at Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala, now a Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the Nevada University, whose voice sounded desperate when he sought my help to weed out a bureaucratic problem. I was flabbergasted at his tone as to why a man of his stature needed my help. That's when my friend related his story in despair. He had arranged with a team of professors of medicine, medical doctors (paediatricians, public health specialists, physicians, surgeons and a specialist in epidemics) from the Yale University in the US, a total of seven to come to Sri Lanka at their own expense to treat the sick and homeless. The Embassy there had not been so effective in guiding them to make their way to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, now shattered by nature, to whom the human nature had not been so kind. Having called the Health Ministry an individual had puffed up by saying that Sri Lanka does not need anymore doctors (!?) The team of voluntary doctors arrived in the hotel at 4 in the morning. I gave them time to rest and flex their muscles in their rooms until other matters were being sorted out. An appointment with the Ministry of Health was fixed for 11 in the morning on this Sunday where most folks, notably the bosses take a day off. But these bosses were all there. The efficiency of Sri Lanka's administrative service swung into action and everything was cleared for these specialists from the Yale University in Connecticut including drugs, transportation and board and lodging and the destination was mapped out - Batticaloa. The team were so impressed by the efficiency of these big wigs at the Health Ministry that they attributed everything to us and the ministry officials. Everyone in the ministry knew what they were up against and had every detail planned out whether the need was in the North, East, South or West. Drugs are in plenty at the supplies division and the bureaucratic barriers broken mercilessly to facilitate the requests of the doctors visiting Batticaloa. These volunteers were not sent by the US government but decided to come to our country when the going was tough. I salute the Health Ministry officials for their courage, integrity and guts in handling these situations at a time when the whole world, led by the US and its President and two former Presidents, coming forward openly to support Sri Lanka. These men in the ministry are a true grit of our motherland and should be respected for their contribution putting aside the unwanted red tape. ASOKA N. PATHIRANE, Colombo The government for sound reasons wishes to discourage the importation of vehicles that burn fuel. So, it would be convenient if prizes were restricted to winning tickets with no extensions being made to non-winning ones. A person should be able to throw away his ticket once he finds that he has not won. More prizes should be given to winning tickets if the NLB wishes to give more. The introduction of bonus numbers and the prize given to the lowest number in the Saturday Fortune draw can be cited as examples of such. BHIKKHU C. MAHINDA, Makola |
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