"Local Industries to an unprecedented imminent collapse"

(Octobetr 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UNP Parliamentarian Gayantha Karunatileke addressing the media today (27 Oct) ,expressed with deep grief the abysmal blunders of the Govt. which has brought the Tea, Rubber and Cardamom Industries to an unprecedented imminent collapse. He said, Tea prices have plummeted to the lowest level ever in the history of Tea industry in Sri Lanka which is 125 years old. The Govt.’s economic and imprudent Trade polices without providential thinking has precipitated this disaster.

The Govt. is just offering sops to the Tea growers, Industrialists and Exporters , and resorting to dilly dallying with an Industry which forms a major part of the country’s economic backbone. It is just going on talking with them and giving false promises in keeping with its favorite hobby, like how it deals with the other burning problems of the country , he noted.

There are 88000 small Tea growers , 2 lakhs Hectares area of tea cultivation , over 25 lakhs of people directly and indirectly dependent on the Industry for their living in SL . Because the prices have tumbled down to a record low due to mismanagement of the economy by the Govt.; the Tea growers cannot meet the costs, the Brokers cannot sell , the industrialists cannot maintain their Industries and Exporters cannot ship at the prevailing low prices, he bemoaned.

The Govt. is trying to blame on the war for this disastrous situation too, and take the people for a ride as it has been doing right along. ‘We are now having a Govt. which wants the people to solve Govt.’s problems although people elected it to serve them’.
This ruination is true of the other two Industries , Rubber and cardamoms too, , he observed.

People need not be reminded as to how UNP gave an impetus to the Tea Industry in1992 when it boomed whereby the Tea plantation and the entire sector including exports greatly benefited , he concluded.

Speaking to the media today (27 Oct ) , at the UNP media unit, UNP M.P. Kabir Hashim, said, the Govt. by trying to please a few and having its sight only on war ( which too is in a muddle ) it is heading the country to a total economic holocaust. The rubber Industry, a main foreign exchange earner and providing jobs to over 2 ½ lakhs people is in the brink of extinction. The price of RSS sheet rubber per kilo has fallen from Rs. 300/- to Rs. 150/- ; scrap rubber from Rs. 150/- to Rs. 30/- . The rubber production too has fallen from 109 million kilos in 2006 to 99 million in 2007. This year it has fallen still more drastically. - Sri Lanka Guardian