Sold at higher prices outside after getting subsidy from government :
COLOMBO : Colombo Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage yesterday ordered to peruse bank account records of thirteen fertiliser companies related to a case where fertiliser imported into Sri Lanka with the approval of the government to be given at a subsidized rate to farmers were sold at higher prices to other non-agricultural enterprises for over six years and earned millions of rupees illegally.
The Magistrate also ordered the Financial Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department to arrest the suspects related to the incident and present them to cCourt.
This order was given when the Financial Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department requested Court permission to investigate the bank records of five registered fertiliser companies and eight intermediate fertiliser companies in the National Fertiliser Secretariat.
The Criminal Investigation Department informed Court that the representatives of the major fertiliser companies had released the fertilisers to be given to the farmers under the subsidy scheme for other industries.
The department informed Court that the association had imported fertiliser at a price of Rs.2,500 and said that it would be given at Rs.1,100 to farmers and the remaining amount had been paid by the government to the said companies.
CID SI Anura Gamage revealed that a committee has been appointed by the Fertiliser Secretariat to investigate the incident.
He said that the appointed committee has stopped sending government money to only two of the other small companies that obtained fertiliser without paying attention to the main companies.

October 11, 2024