TEA lambasts Minister Samarasinghe over CESS | Daily News

TEA lambasts Minister Samarasinghe over CESS

Tea Exports Association (TEA) criticized former Minister of Plantations, Mahinda Samarasinghe accusing him of taking the industry on a ride by introducing the CESS.

The idea was to create a fund via a percentage of tea export revenue and this fund was to be managed jointly by both the government and private sector stake holders. “We as the industry stake holders then lobbied and managed to get the consent of the exporters and annually around Rs. 2 billion was collected,” said TEA Vice President, Roahn Fernando.

However the Minister for reasons best known to him then had decided to leave aside the private sector and the fund was managed by a 100% government. “When the gazette was published in this regard we thought that the Minister took the whole tea industry for a ride as private sector was kicked out,” he claimed. (SS)


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