14 February 2024 12:32 am Views - 64
By Bimal Saman Jayasinghe
Some ten top-ranking officials of five fertilizer companies are to be arrested soon by the CID for defrauding the state of over a billion rupees by selling fertilizer that was meant to be distributed among farmers as subsidies, to outsiders at exorbitant prices.
Sources from the National Fertilizer Secretariat said that there is a female official as well among those who are to be arrested.
It has been revealed during investigations that these officials had sold this fertilizer in 2018 to leading companies in the industrial sector in Horana, Kegalle and Madampe, without distributing it among farmers, the sources said.
The fertilizer had been imported by 18 licensed companies at a price of Rs. 2,500 a bag and to be sold to the farmers at a concessionary rate of Rs. 1,100, but the officials concerned have forged documents and sold them to the outsiders at a price of over Rs. 3,500, it is learnt.
Sources said that the officials of these licensed companies have used third parties to sell the fertilizer, and interestingly it has been revealed that certain officials of the National Fertilizer Secretariat have registered companies under their close relatives’ names to act as third parties.
Meanwhile, certain suspected officials had applied for anticipatory bail in order to prevent the arrest of them while the investigations are on, sources said.