EDB to provide Rs. 225 m for 100 exporters
 

by Anjana Samarasinghe

The Export Development Board (EDB) will provide Rs. 225 million by way of a financial assistance scheme for nearly 100 exporters under the Dahas Diriya export oriented investment support scheme on August 29. This scheme is a result of a budget proposal made last year by the government and the total commitment for the project is Rs. one billion.

The Chairman of EDB Brian Angunawela said under the project Rs. 18.3 million will be granted in cash and the balance will be provided by way of an Export Development Certificate (EDC).

The EDC could be en-cashed over an export oriented investment proposals," he said. This certificate does not carry interest and would be valid for three years from the date of the issue of the certificate.

The Dahas Diriya programme was delayed due to the late submission of the applications by the exporters. This is mainly because exporters needed to produce audit certificates with their applications. In Sri Lanka, the financial year ends in March 31, and exporters have to wait two or three months till they get the audit report. "This was the reason for the delay of submission of applications," he said.

Angunawela also said that they issued 912 applications and 118 have submitted their applications. Only 82 exporters were qualified for the grants and others disqualified due to various reasons.

Exporters are required to exceed export earnings of their companies for the financial year 2004/2005 over the base average of export earnings for the previous three years to be eligible for payment under the scheme. These export items should be none traditional products exceeding percentage of local content of more than 35% .

Many exporters couldn't apply for Dahas Diriya because they were not in the eligible criteria. Also some industries had a negative development in the financial year 2004/2005, he said. Sri Lankan exports has achieved a mammoth Rs. 564 billion in 2004 at a growth of 18 percent over the previous year. The certificates and the grants would be presented to exporters on August 29 at the Galle Face Hotel, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will be the chief guest.