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At the post-budget breakfast seminar, Treasurer Secretary Dr.
Jayasundara did not mince words in being highly critical of Bankers who
resort to lending, backed by gold jewellery of the down trodden rural
masses. He was very correct in saying that the Bankers should not
consider this 'pawning business' as bank lending. He further said that
banks go outstation, collect the jewellery of the poor farmers' wives
and other siblings, lend them paltry sums and then auction such
jewellery when they fail to redeem them on time due to crop failures,
family sicknesses etc.
As Dr. Jayasundara said, it is not necessary to have Bank branches in
the outstations to do this type of lending business. There are pawn
brokers and village mudalalis to do this type of lending. Banks should
if at all, engage in more responsible type of lending activities which
eventuality would enhance the standard of lives of the people in the
rural economies while making their own share of profits, but not this
petty type of lending.
At this seminar, talking to a senior banker, I gathered that the
finance authorities of this country too are responsible for this
irresponsible lending by way of pawning by the banks. I am told that the
banks make excessive profits, without much of a risk being taken on
pawning advances. They also have a distinct advantage of not taking
their pawning portfolios for their Capital Adequacy computations.
Pawning advances attract a minimal risk rating, thereby banks are not
required to keep capital to back those advances. This is a huge
advantage the Banks enjoy. No wonder the Banks are falling over each
other, offering various gimmicks to grab a higher share of this
lucrative pawning business.
Judging by the number of pawning auction notices displayed by the
bank branches in their premises all over the country, how could one
categorise this as a risk free business? Not yet, in this country where
the rural economy is still in the doldrums. Hence, the concessions and
undue advantages being offered to these Pawn Broking Bankers, should be
withdrawn and instead what the Finance authorities should do is to land
higher taxes on the profits earned from their pawning portfolios.
Trust our Treasury Secretary and the Central Bank Governor would rise
to the occasion. No doubt the President would give his blessings in the
interest of the poor rural masses.
S. Wanasinghe
Wellawatte
The above words are painted on the walls outside the Welikada Prison
and opposite Wesley College on Baseline Road. I served in the Prison for
almost forty years, retiring in 1979 as Deputy Commissioner (now
designated commissioner) and had always been given difficult assignments
such as the coup case of 1962, the alleged coup case of 1966 and
thereafter in 1971, thousands of insurrectionists at the Magazine Prison
with Wijeweera and others, the lot of whom were released by the J.R.
Jayewardene government in 1977.
During all these years there had been no upheavals as occurred a few
weeks ago in the Welikada Prison. I was saddened by the loss of so many
lives in the Welikada Prison resulting from the riots. Whatever the
reasons trotted out about drug searches, my inner feeling is that behind
the motives of the ring leader, is the underlying factor of languishing
in prison without fundamentally, the prospect of future release. If
those condemned to death or lifers are not given fixed terms they earn
up to 25 or 30 years, as happened all along during my career. Finally,
the prison staff can also succumb to heavy bribes in the prison. The
remedy is to have separate institutions solely for drug offenders as
done in other eastern countries. The basic principle of prison
incarcerations should be, to reclaim the offenders back to society.
R.J.N. Jordan
I am thankful to Dr. Chandra Weeraratne a senior of mine at the
Medical Faculty, for his letter on the above subject. He is very
knowledgeable and writes on various topics which are interesting. As he
said, it was a tough ride from the beginning till we obtained the degree
awarding status.
First it was the JVP students’ unions followed by the then SLMC
President. Fortunately, she resigned when she knew that she could not
stop the forward march of SAITM. Now we are building the largest private
sector Teaching Hospital at Welivita in Malabe in front of the SAITM for
clinical teaching. We hope to admit the first patient in January 2013.
The hospital with the most modern high-tech equipment has cost nearly Rs
3,000 million.
Dr. Chandra has mentioned that our students will be placed at the
bottom of the list. The degree which we will offer, is a Sri Lankan
degree and as the students are Sri Lankans. All students whether state
or otherwise should be treated equally and there should be a test before
placements are made. That will be the next obstacles which we will have
to overcome.
Thank you Chandra for the good things that you have said.
Dr. Neville Fernando
The account of Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake is so damning that she
should not remain in office for even one more day. The analysis that
appeared in your newspaper today has very neatly set out conditions that
would arouse the suspicions about money laundering.
The examination of Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake’s accounts show that she
is guilty of every one of those transgressions. I am also stunned that
debits and credits to her account during the year ending March 31, 2012
have reached a staggering Rs. 513 million.
Even a medium scale enterprise would not have a turn-over of that
magnitude.
I hope the authorities will act fast and take action without being
frightened by the power that the Chief Justice would unleash when these
offences are brought to light.
Asoka Hewavitharana email
The Sri Lanka Tea Board some years back, opened a branch in London.
The aim was to promote local teas in the European market. Although the
prices of tea at the centre was on the high side, the Board maintained
the break-even level mainly due to the reputation ‘Ceylon Tea’ had
widely gained. Africa and India also opened branches in London and they
sold quality tea at a lesser price. The ultimate result was that the Tea
Board lost the competition and had to close down the London Centre. The
Tea Board has a fair market share in the Middle East and Eastern
countries. Competition is stiff from both Africa and India in these
countries as well. The Board has to be on the alert to avoid the same
fate recurring in these markets as well.
Everything is not in order with the Tea Board. The COPE report
presented in Parliament recently, highlights an incident which is sheer
mis-management of the Board. The Board had imported a vehicle valued at
Rs. 1,917,000 from Japan. It had been used for some time at the Tea
Promotion Unit in Japan. Prior to getting down the vehicle, the Board
had correctly obtained the approval and consent of the Customs
Department to exempt the vehicle from Customs and other import duties.
However the Board had failed to follow this up and had not claimed the
initial consent of the Department of Customs. As a result, a fantastic
sum of Rs. 6,676,393 had been spent as customs and other duties. Worse
is the fact that the vehicle had later been sold at Rs. 2,400,000 in
2011 to some party.
Harshi Nadie Perera
Piliyandala
There are so many stories appearing in newspapers, broadcast over the
radio and shown on television on the imminent disaster befalling on us
in December 2012. Some say they have based this on a prediction supposed
on have been made by the Mayans. Mayans, like most other people those
days, did not know that the earth is going round the sun, not even that
the earth is round. They did not know that infectious diseases are
caused by germs. Can such people have knowledge of astronomical
catastrophes that will take place thousands of years in the future?
It has always been true that the very vast majority of the people are
much less knowledgeable of things happening in the universe than a very
small minority of people who know much better. This cannot be helped as
gathering knowledge requires exposure to the right sources, availability
of time and even some money and also the right background. According to
information available to reliable, knowledgeable, rational and sane
people this December will be just another month. Like in any other month
there will be a lot of good things happening also some crimes, some
disasters such as floods and droughts, births and deaths, wins and
losses, may be a discovery or two, some good changes and bad ones, a
couple of wars and disturbances etc. There won’t be a mass extinction of
species, darkness for a couple of days where normal weather is expected
nor the Third World War.
People who talk of an imminent huge disaster are crooks who create
fear and collect money claiming that they can save the ignorant
believers, fools who believe the crooks through lack of knowledge and
the psychologically unbalanced people who tend to see things that are
not there.
Senarath B. Basnayake
Kandy
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