ECT to India gets Cabinet approval

Trade unions against the privatisation of the East Container Terminal (ECT) on Thursday confirmed they had received confirmation that the government has approved handing over of terminal operations to India.

Speaking on the sidelines of a media briefing in Colombo JVP MP and National Trade Union Centre Convenor Wasantha Samarasinghe told the Business

Times that they believed the country will incur a loss in earnings of US$ 12 million monthly should the government handover ECT operations to India. The Business Times was the first to report, two weeks ago, that an Indian company was to be approved as the terminal operator.

During the briefing it was stated that the government had re-ignited the discussion on a Cabinet paper that had initially been submitted by the former Ports and

Shipping Minister Johnston Fernando. The Cabinet last week ( November 4) had approved the new Cabinet paper submitted by Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena.

This cabinet paper had stated that the government would be consenting to the continuation of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) entered into by Sri Lanka in 2019 and the India and Japan consortium but would not want to have Japan as a partner.

In this respect the union called on the government to voice their policy on the matter without hesitation. Moreover, they raised concerns that this is a grave loss to Sri Lanka.

Mr. Samarasinghe alleged that the government’s refusal for the best offer of 0.01 per cent loan to purchase the cranes by Japan for the ECT was due to the fact that they would not be ‘receiving any commission’ on the job should they go ahead.