The Island.lk: Sri Lanka: Saturday,
April 08, 2017.
In spite of
the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed people’s right to
information, in addition to the much touted Right to Information (RTI) Act,
Supreme Court had to be moved recently to obtain data pertaining to duty free
vehicles imported by politicians, petitioner attorney-at-law Nagananda
Kodituwakku told The Island yesterday.
After having
failed to secure relevant information twice late last year, the petitioner
sought the Supreme Court’s intervention in accordance with Article 126 of the
Constitution. Kodituwakku has, in his petition, alleged that denial of
information as requested by him violated Article 14A of the Constitution and
Section 3 of the Right to Information Act No 12 of 2016.
Sri Lanka
adopted the 19 A on April 28, 2015 whereas the RTI came into effect on Feb 3,
2017.
Those who had
recently commended Sri Lanka for securing third place in the RTI global
rankings should inquire into ongoing efforts made by those in authority to
withhold information, Kodituwakku stressed.
The former
head of the Customs Revenue Task Force was commenting on Canada based RTI watch-dog
Center for Law and Democracy (CLD) declaration of latest rankings.Mexico and
Serbia secured first and second places, respectively.
Kodituwakku
said that the AG had been made a party to the application in terms of Article
134 of the Constitution.
Kodituwakku
said that information that had been obtained with Supreme Court intervention
was brought to the notice of the apex court by way of motion ahead of the next
hearing into a case against the Commission to Investigate Allegations of
Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). The petitioner has alleged that for want of
tangible measures on the part of the CIABOC following a complaint lodged in Aug
2015 the state suffered losses in revenue.
The case is
scheduled to come up, before a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice
Priyasath Dep on May 9, 2017.
Among those
who had availed the duty free facility were President Maithripala Sirisena,
twice president Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as former
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa. Kodituwakku said that in his petition, as he had
reserved the right to furnish further material relevant to the case an
authenticated document issued by the Director General of Customs regarding
vehicles imported on tax-free car permits issued from 01-Jan-2016 to 05th April
2017 was submitted to the Supreme Court.
Kodituwakku
commended the Commissioner General of Motor Traffic for cooperating with him in
terms of the 19 A and the RTI.
The
petitioner has alleged that issuance of tax-free car permits to members of
parliament and their transfer to third parties have caused a colossal loss to
government revenue running into several billions of rupees, while ordinary
people had to bear unbearable tax burden imposed on almost every commodity,
including water.
Documents
recently obtained in terms of the RTI revealed that the six member JVP
parliamentary group had received tax exemption amounting to Rs 30 mn (Rs
500,000 each) whereas other members received tax relief ranging from a
staggering Rs 30 mn to Rs 44 mn. The following 45 members had transferred their
vehicles to third parties: S. Sridharan, S. Gnanamuttu, Sisira Jayakody, S.C.
Muthukumarana, Chamal Rajapaksa, S. Sivamohan, Buddhika Pathirana, Janaka
Tennakoon, Vasantha Senanayake, W. L. Aluvihare, K.S.N. Perera, Ramesh
Pathirana, D.T. W. W. Dissanayake, Nishantha Muthuhettigamage, Sujeewa
Senasinghe, Kanchana Wijesekera, Mohan Lal Grero, Palitha Thewarapperuma,
H.M.P.N. de Silva, Imran Maharoof, I.P.R.K. Wijerathne, D.V.C. Dinushan, Ven
Athureliye Rathana, Vijayakala Maheswaran, Vaidivel Suresh, Lakshman Kiriella,
S. Senathirajah, P.M..K.A.S. Jayarathne, Dilum Amunugama, Lohan Ratwatte, Udaya
Gammanpila B.H. Wijepala, S. Premarathne, P.S. Fernandopulle, Lakshman
Seneviratne, G.V. Wijithmuni Zoysa, Kabir Hashim, Shehan A. Semasinghe, Nimal
Lanza, P. Wanniarachchi, R.D. Priyantha Asoka, B.A. Wijitha, B.P. Ranaweera,
M.S. Thowfeek and N. Sivasakthy. The document made available by the Commissioner
General of Motor Traffic contained names of new owners.
Kodituwakku
said that the actual number of members of parliament who had sold their
vehicles was certainly higher than 45. According to him, many vehicles could
have been sold without transferring the ownership.
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