By Saman Indrajith

Opposition MPs in Parliament called on Public Security Minister Tiran Alles to focus on rectifying the mess created by visa facilitating agency VFS-led consortium instead of trying to frame a youth who criticised it at the BIA.

Minister Alles said the awarding of the contract to VFS had been approved by the Cabinet, and Parliament had approved revised visa fees.

JVP/NPP MP Vijitha Herath said that the government’s move to institute legal action against the youth who had expressed his displeasure would lead to public outrage. “Everybody knows now that the youth in question intervened against a wrong move by the government. Because of his intervention, the government decided to suspend the foreign agency that issued visa to foreigners and brought down the fee from 100 dollars to 50 dollars. His action led to save 50 dollars taken from the foreigners being shifted out of the country. He used his freedom of expression to inform the entire nation of the wrongdoing. He is the one who opened the

eyes of the Cabinet and rectified the error. If the government takes legal action against him,not only the members of the legal fraternity, the entire nation will stand by him, all progressive forces will support him. The government would further worsen the mess,” Herath said.

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella said that Minister Alles had misled the House when talking about VFS.

Minister Alles said that he did not speak of VFS in Parliament but only about increasing visa fees. “The VFS proposal was submitted to the Cabinet and then it was referred to a Cabinet subcommittee which studied that report for three months. Thereafter it was returned to the Cabinet and was given approval. I did not speak of VFS in Parliament,” the Minister said.

Kiriella called on the Secretary General of Parliament to bring Hansard to the chamber to ascertain the veracity of the standpoint taken by the Minister.

Alles said the agreement had been made after a proposal was made by the company. The Cabinet has given its approval for the deal.

Kiriella reading out from Hansard proved his point that Alles on a previous day had spoken about VFS in Parliament. “How could this be done on a Cabinet approval, financial control powers are with Parliament,” he queried.

 SJB Colombo District MP S.M. Marikkar said that the deal between the government with IVS-GBS-VFS Global was worth 840 million dollars over its 12-year lifetime.

The firm was charging 18.5 dollars per visa and a 5 to 7 dollar ‘convenience fee’ on top of the government visa fee from tourists trying to enter Sri Lanka.

 Marikkar said the VFS Global was placed to earn cash flows of up to 100 million dollars a year based on tourist promotion targets of the industry, over the contract period.

The firm would earn 35 million dollars in 2024, 43 million dollars in 2025, 49 million dollars, 56 million dollars in 2026, 62 in 2028, 68 in 2029, 74 in 2030, Marikkar said reading out from a document.

The group would earn 80 million dollars in 2031, 86 million in 2032, 92 million in 2033, 96 million in 2034 and 100 million in 2035 million. VFS Global group stood to earn 840 million dollars over the period of the contract which was renewable every two years. The deal was awarded without a competitive procurement process, Marikkar said.

NFF leader MP Wimal Weerawansa said that Minister Alles had told the media that the youth’s conduct at BIA which is an international airport could not be approved. We know that there are many other happenings at the BIA that we do not see in other international airports. I call on the Minister not to take action against this youth.