PCol wants AG to find out why BOI failed to monitor Mihin Lanka

Justice Gamini Rohan Amarasekera of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka, yesterday, instructed the Attorney General’s Department officials to find out whether the Investment Monitoring Unit of the BoI hadn’t monitored continuous violations of BoI agreement by Mihin Lanka due to any pressure.

Earlier, the overnight witness Gamini Jayathilake, Director, Investments at BoI, told the PCoI that Mihin Lanka continued to enjoy tax concessions, due to its agreement with the BoI, without fulfilling the conditions of the agreement.

The BoI’s monitoring unit had not looked into those infringements.

“Usually, we don’t scrap our agreements with companies if they continue to function,” he told the PCoI. However, Justice Amarasekera observed that he had seen the BoI strip companies of tax concession privileges when they failed to fulfill their obligations. “We sometimes do that under BoI instructions,” Jayathilake said.

He said Mihin Lanka had received tax concessions worth Rs. 385.3 million between September 2012 and January 2018. SriLankan had received tax concessions worth Rs. 561 billion in the same period. SriLankan Catering had received concessions worth Rs. 5 billion.