Parliament

House remembers former colleagues

The following is the continuation of Parliament proceedings from Friday

Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera: Kuruppuarachchi appeared on behalf of his friends when they were undergoing problems and difficult times. He spoke against social injustices. He passed away at an early age of 50.

International Monetary Cooperation Senior Minister Dr Sarath Amunugama: As a member representing the Kandy seat, I am glad to speak a few words on behalf of the late ex-MP Kuruppuarachchi. He hailed from 'Udu Nuwara'.

Kuruppuarachchi was a brave character and was able to defeat a former President by contesting from the Kandy district, when entering Parliament. He had a strong desire to contribute to the national level development while providing his services to the electorate.

Eric Prasanna Weerawardena (UPFA): Ex-MP Kuruppuarachchi was a close friend of my father. He was a businessman who had the autonomy of vehicle sales in the area. He was the owner of 64 buses.

He did an enormous service to the people of "Udunuwara". He met with an unfortunate accident in 1998 and was silent for sometime.

Foreign Employment and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera: I just arrived from Saudi Arabia and there are signs of good news pending. A special characteristic of ex-MP Kuruppuarachchi was that he spoke his ideas directly.

He was a people-friendly politician and treated everybody with kindness. He did not pursue money from politics.

A H M Azwer (in chair)

I approve the condolence speeches made in the House today. I request the Secretary General of Parliament to send the copies of the condolence motion to the family members of late ex-MP Kuruppuarachchi.

Thereafter the House took up the order under the Excise (Special Provisions) Act for debate.

International Monetary Cooperation Senior Minister Dr Sarath Amunugama: I present the order under the Excise (Special Provisions) Act for the approval of the House. This order is related to vehicle importation.

Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody takes the Chair

Dr Sarath Amunugama: A large number of vehicles are being imported to the country annually and this number is escalating daily.

However, there has been some irregularities related to vehicle importation and this gazette is being presented to rectify those irregularities. We understood that the tax imposed on hybrid vehicles was comparatively low. We uphold the idea that more encouragement should be given for the importation of hybrid vehicles. However, tax concessions given from the budget to those vehicles was too much and this has led to several irregularities.

That is why we impose taxes again on hybrid vehicles after properly calculating it. Hence, I present this order for the approval of the House.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (DNA): The House approves various gazettes presented by the government. However, I would like to raise a question as to whether these orders approved are being followed practically.

According to the Consumer Affairs Authority Act, SLS is essential to import cement. Today this order was being openly violated.

This government imports low quality petrol, cement and coconuts. Even the seeds distributed among farmers are not upto the required quality. This shows that this government was also a low quality government.

Wijayadasa Rajapaksa (UNP): The Excise (Special Provisions) Act was presented in 1989. It includes taxes related to about 100 items. However, according to the Senior Minister, this order is presented to revise the tax related to hybrid vehicle importation

This tax procedure is complicated and always fluctuating. The people have also doubts whether they receive the due benefits from the taxes they pay to the government.

Transport Deputy Minister Rohana Kumara Dissanayake: The regulations are fluctuating time to time to suit the policies followed by the government. It is the hour of the need.

The tax on petrol vehicles is still higher than the hybrid vehicles. The tax increment is only provisioned for luxury vehicles. MP Anura Dissanayake attempted to misled the House. Therefore, we need to clarify the correct facts.

Order under the Excise (Special Provisions) Act was approved.

Clarification on attacks

Chief Government Whip and Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardana, told Parliament on Thursday that no one had been killed in the North and East due to an attack by unidentified persons, up to end of 2010 since the operation was over.

Minister Gunawardana made this observation in Parliament in response to a question raised by UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara.

He also stated that six persons had been killed in the Northern Province while three had been killed in the Eastern Province in separate incidents. The culprits have been identified in one incident in the Northern Province and investigations were in progress in connection with the other incidents. The minister observed that sufficient evidence was not available to prove the cases beyond doubt.