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SLT denies Rs. 2 b spent on Mobitel unification 

07 Jan 2021

Sri Lanka Telecom has rejected allegations made by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa that Rs. 2 billion was spent on the unification of Sri Lanka Telecom and its subsidiary Mobitel.  “Sri Lanka Telecom vehemently denies the statement made by the leader of the opposition in parliament on 5 January 2021, claiming that the company had spent Rs. 2 billion on a recent brand name change, as baseless and devoid of truth. Sri Lanka Telecom expresses its deep concerns over the parliamentarian’s irresponsible and derogatory statements using parliamentary privileges against the company, as they were amplified in certain mainstream and social media outlets with a seemingly malicious intent to tarnish the reputation of the national ICT provider and indirectly benefit mostly foreign owned competitor companies,” it said in a press release yesterday (6).  The release added that its new corporate logo was designed at a “very marginal cost” and that the brand unification would increase profits.  “Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel have come together as a unified brand, to focus jointly on providing outstanding products and services to Sri Lanka. The new corporate logo was designed to merely reflect this unification at a very marginal cost. The unification will preserve the individuality of both companies, while building on the customer base, increasing topline and generating better profits. In 2020, the company analysed wasteful investments made in the previous 5 years and took meaningful actions to minimise this waste and generate profits from dormant assets.”  Premadasa further claimed that these funds should have been spent on the repatriation of Sri Lankans stranded overseas, to which SLT said that as a corporate entity, it cannot divert its money towards such activities as it violates corporate governance principles, financial protocols and shareholder interest, which it said the opposition leader should be fully aware of.  The release went on to detail SLT’s contribution towards efforts to combat and survive through the COVID-19 pandemic.  “The SLT Group has further operated in the interest of the country during the pandemic, taking the lead in contributing to the Itukama COVID-19 fund initiated by His Excellency the President, with part of the money coming from voluntary contributions of the staff. The company has also gone to unprecedented lengths of community service under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, distributing health and safety equipment to the health sector, food and supplies to underprivileged communities, and medical infrastructure facilities for hospitals around the country. Further as the nation’s ICT service provider, Sri Lanka Telecom also stepped up to connect many isolated villages to the SLT and Mobitel networks to assist the continued online education of rural children. The company’s frontline employees ventured into the field to serve customers in full adherence of hygiene protocols and were successful in providing uninterrupted services to the country and all critical national services last year, without a single case of COVID-19 infection.”  Furthermore, SLT noted that it recorded its best ever operational results in 2020, whilst “ensuring staff welfare with no reservations” and ending the year “without a single industrial dispute”.


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