13 March 2021 12:00 am Views - 495
By T. Farook Thajudeen
JVP chairman Sunil Handunneththi filed a petition in Supreme Court against Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mahinda Rajapaksa and eight others including Pyramid Wilmar (Pvt) Ltd of Lauries Road Colombo 04 over alleged corrupt trading practices carried out by the company in connivance with the first respondent Mahinda Rajapaksa, second respondent S.R. Attygalle Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and third respondent Nushad Perera who is now the Chairman of Sri Lanka Standards Institution.
The petitioner alleged that the first respondent acting under section 2 of the Special Commodity Levy Act No 48 of 2007 made certain orders in respect of several commodities and it was gazetted on 21st May 2020, which order was valid for six months until 20th November 2020.
He asserts that in terms of the Act all the levies collected under the Act shall be remitted to the Consolidated Fund.
He states that the first respondent had imposed a levy of Rs 50 per Kg of sugar which had reduced to cents 25 per Kg.
The petitioner states that at the time the order was made there had been 10,147.45 metric tons of sugar in the stores that was imported by the private sector. Meanwhile the Consumer Affairs Authority had fixed the maximum price for a kg of sugar for Rs. 80/-.
The 3rd respondent being the Chairman of the CWE had purchased 750 metric tons of sugar from Pyramid Wilmar for Rs 92 per Kg. and another consignment of 600 metric tons of sugar for Rs 110 per KG.
The petitioner claim that the 1st to 5th respondents who is the owner of Shangri-La Hotel at Galle Face who is very close to the Prime Minister and the President and had helped their political propaganda events of the “ViyathMaga” had fraudulently acting in collusion, made an illegal benefit to the 5th respondent company as an award to the 5th respondent Sajan Mawzoon, the Director of Pyramid Wilmar (Pvt) Ltd.