PTL ACTUAL PROFIT AROUND RS. 18, 200MN: VAC

Although the loss to the country as a result of the bond had been to be Rs. 11,500 million in the report of the Presidential Commission of inquiry (PCOI) into the Central Bank bond issuance that occurred in 2015 and 2016, the actual profit made by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) was Rs.18, 200 million, the Voice Against Corruption (VAC) said yesterday.

VAC Convener Wasantha Samarasinghe said it is questionable whether the Central Bank had done its duty properly as it had failed to track some Rs 6,813 million earnings of the PTL.

He said the PCOI was given authority to probe the bonds issued until March 31, 2016 but former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran had stayed in office until July 2016.

Mr. Samarasinghe said until September 2016, PTL owner Arjun Aloysius has presented reports of profit and loss of the Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

During the six months from April 2016 to September 2016 PTL had received an income of Rs 6,813 million and it had not included to the PCOI report as the investigation was only until March 31, 2016.

According to the PCOI Report he said Rs 11,500 million loss to the State was on what was earned by PTL during the period that ended on March 31, 2016 and therefore only this sum could be recovered from them.

He added that the PTL had received a total profit of around Rs 18,250 million during the 30 months from March 1, 2015 to March 31, 2017.

Therefore he said the commission had only published accounts for six months but the loss incurred after March 31, 2016 was yet with PTL.

He said that from March 31, 2017 to September 30, 2017 Perpetual Treasuries had earned Rs 316 million which would be in their books along with the interest thereon as they were not able to function in the secondary market during this time.

Therefore he said over Rs 6 billion in profits which they earned from the bond scam was still with the company. “Aloysius is attempting to withdraw the money from the Perpetual Treasuries bank accounts as he know the total profit made by the PTL after the report came out,” he said.

Furthermore, he said Aloysius still had treasury bonds left over from February 2015 and some were transferred to other companies. Therefore those bond transactions should be probed separately, pointed out.“we request President Maithripala Sirisena to appoint a second Presidential Commission to probe the rest of the bond fraud,” he added.