No breakdown of trade and commerce by terrorist attacks
Chamikara Weerasinghe
COLOMBO: The Government is well-equipped to meet any challenge
posed by LTTE attacks and is geared to ensure the smooth functioning of
trade and commerce even in the midst of such attacks as witnessed
yesterday.
The Secretary of the Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ministry,
Dr. R. M. K. Ratnayaka assured there would be no indemnity demands by
shipping giants for huge sums as insurance securities to dock their
ships in Sri Lanka as happened following the terrorist attacks on the
Bandaranaike International Airport in July 2001.
Dr. Ratnayaka said, "then the Treasury had released an indemnity of
US$ 10 million to the Lloyds of London and said that we would pay any
damage caused to their ships." "Thus the matter was resolved," he said.
Referring to the Monday's LTTE attack, the Secretary said, "I do not
know how Lloyds of London would look at the present LTTE attack on SLAF
base but their view will be based on the risk involved in bringing their
ships," he said.
"However, I can say that the Treasury is well-prepared to deal with
any situation. We have set apart enough financial reserves to deal with
such situations," he said. Asked if this can have any adverse effects on
consumers with the New Year around the corner, Dr. Ratnayaka said, "If
the LTTE did this to cause a food scarcity during the Sinhala/Tamil New
Year with a view to cause hardships to the public, their attempt is
futile because we have more than enough provisions of essential food
items imported to the country.
"We have 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar, plenty of dhal. There is no
need to increase prices of these items over this isolated incident," he
pointed out.
Sources at the Trade and Commerce Ministry said that if the ministry
had to comply with the shipping companies' demands for insurance
security, this will have no effect since there are already ample stocks. |