CAA raids fatten coffers

Parliament correspondents

Consumer Affairs and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando told Parliament yesterday that the Government has received an income of Rs 30 million from the fines imposed on errant traders during the last four months.

The Minister said that the Consumer Affairs Authority had increased the number of raids by 100 percent to arrest the errant traders. In 2007 the CAA conducted 3,661 raids, in 2008 - 3,716 raids and in 2009 - 4,517 raids.

This year up to October the number of raids has increased to 6,577. From May to October alone, the number of raids was 5,361.

This is a hundred percent increase in raids. The income generated by the CAA through these raids was always around one billion rupees. This year the income has increased over Rs 3 billion already," he said.

The Minister was responding to an oral question raised by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake.