‘A Cabinet reshuffle was done to enhance the smooth implementation of government policies and was discussed for about four to five months’, summarizes the position of the leader of the house, Minister Bimal Ratnayake.

According to him, his cabinet portfolio of Minister of Ports and Aviation was not removed from him for his nonperformance or any other reasons. It is very interesting that only one Cabinet change of shipping and aviation was the bottle neck for the smooth implementation of policies of the government and it took four to five months to make that change, if we were to take his comment at its face value.

According to Federal Party (ITAK) MP Rasamanikkam Chanakian, it was good move by the government as the investigation of the removal of 300 red-flagged containers without inspection by customs could be investigated without any impediments, as the Minister of Ports was removed from his position. I wonder what the investigation in the Department of Customs, coming under the Ministry of Finance, has to do with Minister of Ports. Chanakian will probably know the logic; I could not fathom it.

However, sources who are close to the Indian establishments told me a few weeks ago that Minster Bimal Ratnayake will be removed from his post of Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation. This is after the Jaffna district coordinating committee meeting in which Minster Bimal Ratnayake responded to a question from MP Sivagnanam Sridharan. Sridharan asked the Minister why the Seaport of KKS and Airport of Palaly are not being developed to become international, despite the fact that the Indian government has given funding for their development.

Minster Ratnayake has said that KKS Seaport is not commercially viable and he is exploring the development of Jaffna International Airport. KKS Seaport will become like the Port of Oluwil. Furthermore, he said money India has given was not sufficient. He promised to give MP Sridharan the report that shows KKS Seaport is economically non-viable when they meet in Colombo. I wonder whether Sridharan got the report. I believe, we citizens have the right to know at least the executive summary part of it and the authors of the report.

What are the implications of the Minster’s statement? The Indian government does not know what they are doing? Are they funding projects that are not economically viable? They need not give funding that does not meet the needs of the people.

This is not a statement a senior Minster could make publicly about a friendly neighboring country that has been helping with funds of several billion dollars as cash and project funding from the time Sri Lanka went into bankruptcy in 2022 for the first time in its history. Surely it would have caused concerns to the Indian establishment?

The KKS Port was to be developed to have a cheap and affordable ferry service between India and Sri Lanka. This was decided at a high-level meeting between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe when they met in Delhi.

The Indian and Sri Lankan governments gave subsidies to encourage travel between the two countries; more travel from India to Sri Lanka than the other way around. It was to attract not only Indian tourists but international tourists as well as leisure travel. India waived some port charges, the central government of India funding the cost of port services, but did not waive off GST, our VAT equivalent.

Sri Lanka waived VAT and also initially Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) charges. The Secretary of shipping told the SLPA, when they objected to the waiver, that the Government was more interested in the tourist income and not to worry about USD 5 per passenger. But the directive was not given in a writing. As such, when the government and secretary changed, SLPA is charging USD 5 for each embarking and disembarking passengers apart from other charges.

The Director General of the Merchant Shipping Department has to collect USD 5 per embarking passenger by gazette notification, but I was made to understand that they have not collected it at all so far from the time ferry services started in August last year. They weren’t even aware that they have to collect, when someone informed them.  I do not know whether they are collecting now. I was told it is about LKR 20 million up to now, more than Ranil’s ‘misused state funds’ for which he was arrested.

There is an allegation that the ferry service brings in a lot of Indian goods to the Jaffna peninsula without ‘couriers’ paying duty and taxes, but as personal goods. I was told by the ferry operator that there are a few ‘couriers’ operating, but they claim it is not more than 20% of the passengers.

More than Sri Lankan Customs, Indian Customs are very tough on couriers. This ‘courier’ operation happens even in Colombo airport. Discouraging ferry services because of ‘couriers’ is being penny wise and pound foolish.

Customs collection could be improved. I was told in KKS Port all areas are under CCTV cameras, but not in the Customs area as the customs officers objected to it. I stand to be corrected.

I was told lack of facilities for passengers and operators in KKS Port was taken up with the Ministry of Ports and Shipping by the Ferry operators in December last year and they were told a high-powered team will visit before January 15^, 2025 and look into it and remedy the situation. Up to now, I was told, nothing has happened. There are others who are planning to start Ferry services but are discouraged by lack of facilities.

From Bimal Ratnayake’s statement, reasons for it not happening are very clear.

According to the Tamil Murasu newspaper from Jaffna, edited by Vidyatharan, a well-respected journalist, the reason for Bimal Ratnayake’s behavior is his Sinhala Buddhist mentality that does not allow him to implement projects in the North that will bring prosperity to the north.

He has praised the President in his editorial for his corrective action that was described by him as political surgery. Some others suggested that it could be carry-over of probably traditional anti Indian sentiments of the 1987-JVP.

However, NPP professionals known to me deny that allegation. Quite a number of them told me that they believe that economic development of the north, with the work ethics of the region, is critical for economic development the whole of Sri Lanka.

Time will tell whether KKS Seaport and Palaly Airport were not developed at least for nine months due to Minster Bimal Ratnayake’s subjective personal convictions, whatever the reasons for it may be, or for economically objective reasons.