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Trinco oil tank farm: Agreement between Sri Lanka and India remains intact – Indian HC
There is no truth in reports that the understanding between India and Sri Lanka on jointly developing and operating the Upper Tank Farm at Trincomalee has been ‘scrapped’, the Indian High Commission said yesterday in a press release.
This comes a day after Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila told reporters in Colombo that the government would reacquire World War-era oil tanks in the eastern city of Trincomalee — which were leased out to an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in 2003.
“These reports did not correctly portray remarks made by the Minister of Energy of Sri Lanka at an event on 17 February 2021. As indicated in the Minister’s briefing also, the two governments have consulted each other to explore mutually acceptable modalities for jointly developing and operating the facility in accordance with existing bilateral understandings, including the MoU of 2017,” the HC said.
India looks forward to formal discussions on the matter, and expeditious implementation of their outcome to mutual benefit, the HC said.
The pre-World War 11 era oil storage tanks in Trincomalee would be administered by a State Owned Enterprise and all its activities would be subjected to the state auditing procedures after the government re-acquired the oil tanks from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila said on Thursday.
Gammanpila said that after they re-acquired the tanks; the government would decide for how long the SoE would administer them, the agreement between shareholders and how many tanks would be handed over to the CPC.
On Wednesday Minister Gammanpila said that during a discussion with the Indian High Commissioner, the Indians agreed to “leave aside” the terms negotiated by the former Maithripala Sirisena – Ranil Wickremesinghe administration in 2017.
In 2003, Sri Lanka leased out 99 oil tanks to IOC for 35 years, for an annual payment of $1,00,000. Lanka IOC has been using 15 tanks, while the rest await an upgrade for use.
In 2017 on development cooperation, India and Sri Lanka agreed to jointly [with LIOC involvement] refurbish 84 tanks and build related infrastructure in the Trincomalee Port. However, the two sides were unable to carryout project, amid mounting pressure from the oil sector trade unions that sought more control for the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).
Approval has been granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 22.07.2024 to publish the draft bill of State Assets Management Act in the government gazette notification and thereby present it to the Parliament for its concurrence.
However, the draft bill couldn’t be passed in Parliament as a result of the Parliament being dissolved in the month of October 2024.
Thereafter, the draft bill was subject to further inspection by a
committee appointed which comprised of officials and authorities on the subject.
The said Committee has recognized the amendments to be made and a fundamental draft has been prepared including the proposed amendments.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to suspend further activities regarding the draft bill of State Assets Management Act published in the extraordinary gazette of 02.08.2024, and to direct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a draft bill based on the fundamental draft prepared by the subject specialists’ committee.
Considering the compliance of the Cooperative Societies’ operations with the concurrent socio – economic circumstances as well as the changes in the common law, the requirement of amending the Cooperative Employees Commission Act No. 12 of 1972 has been recognized.
A fundamental draft including proposed amendments based on the experience gained by that Commission as well as the opinions and proposals of Cooperative societies, their director board members, cooperative employees and other interested parties has been prepared.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative development to provide instructions to the Legal draftsman to prepare a draft bill to amend the Cooperative Employees Commission Act No. 12 0f 1972, based on the said fundamental draft.
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