Minister denies forcing the Customs' hand

From Ceylon Today

BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody

Minister of Investment Promotion, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana yesterday, (03) whilst denying that he had imported a consignment of spare parts along with 200 bicycles, said he would respond to the allegations in Parliament today.

Although the Customs had retained the containers from 28 October onwards, for further investigations, they were cleared on 31 October by paying Customs duties totalling up to Rs 737,000, the Minister said.

It is reported that the Sri Lanka Customs had to release the two containers following instructions issued by Minister Abeywardana.

The suspicions of Customs officials at the Colombo Port were aroused owing to the fact that the two containers from Japan containing 200 school bicycles also contained spare parts in one container, which was revealed when the containers were scanned.

Customs suspicions were aroused as it was deemed that the 200 bicycles could have easily been packed into one container.

"The 200 bicycles were meant for school children. It is to be distributed at my electorate through my 'Lakshman Yapa Foundation' in Matara, which was founded 20 years ago and was also in operation during the tsunami period. One 20 by 10 container contained 153 bicycles and the other 10 by 10 container had 47 bicycles. The letter at Customs clearly states that this was all there was," he added.

Customs Media Spokesman Leslie Gamini confirmed that the total levy was Rs 436,571 (Customs duties - Rs 300,000, Less - Rs 60,000, Port and Airport Development Levy – Rs 6,202, Nation Building Tax – Rs 10,053 and value added tax – Rs 60,316).

"Consignee for the 200 bicycles is the Lakshman Yapa Foundation. The value of the bicycles is Rs 124,021. The scanning documents, the valuing documents and the other Customs reports do not state anything about the presence of spare parts. The consignment has been examined and released," he added.