RTI query on release of 323 containers under suspicious circumstances

Customs: Practice of releasing containers without inspection nothing new

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader Udaya Gammanpila yesterday (27) demanded that Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake be arrested for ordering the release of 323 containers without Customs checks from the Colombo port on 18 January 2025.

Attorney-at-law Gammanpila said that Minister Rathnayake had no authority whatsoever to issue instructions to the Director General of Customs to skip mandatory clearance.

The former Power and Energy Minister dealt with the continuing controversy over releasing of containers on Minister Rathnayake’s directive at his regular media briefing at the PHU office at Pita Kotte.

Pointing out that Minister Rathnayake had said that he personally ordered the release of containers in question, the ex-lawmaker said that though the Colombo Port came under Rathnayake’s purview as the Minister of Port, the Customs was under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the Finance Minister.

Acknowledging that Minister Rathnayake had been appointed to the Cabinet sub-committee that was tasked to address congestion at the Colombo Port, former Gammanpila said that the Committee could have made recommendations. As a member of that Committee Minister Rathnayake couldn’t have issued orders directly to the Customs Chief, he said.

Gammanpila accused the Customs of trying to suppress information relating to the released containers. Gammanpila disclosed that the Customs had side-stepped the questions posed to them in terms of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. “We submitted a set of questions on February 08, 2025 to the Customs. Instead of answering intended to identify the categories the released containers were assigned to, the Customs on April 3, 2025 sent us a media release dated January 29 that dealt with the issue at hand.”

The former Minister said that the cargo at issue remained a mystery. Referring to the arrest of former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella over misappropriation of public funds on the pretext of importing cancer drugs, PHU leader asked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to take similar action against Minister Rathnayake.

Responding to the former Minister’s allegation, the Customs said that they had cleared thousands of containers without inspection since early 2024, though the issue came to light recently as a result of unions launching a campaign against the top management.

Sources familiar with the issue told The Island that the Customs began clearing containers that had been marked for examination to overcome congestion at the Colombo Port during President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure.

The Customs had adopted the controversial strategy to ease congestion as there was no other alternative, sources said. Clearing of containers had been carried out intermittently during this period, including the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections in September and November, respectively, sources said.

Gammanpila challenged the government to clear its name by revealing identities of the importers of those containers.

By Shamindra Ferdinando