• Claims Govt. officials responsible for compensation delay
• Calls for compensation to include 13 years of interest at compounded T-bill rates
• Fresh claim submitted amid ongoing court proceedings over expropriation

Former Member of Parliament (MP) Daya Gamage has alleged that he is entitled to Rs. 27 billion as compensation in terms of the current valuation for the expropriation of the Sevanagala Sugar Factory and its lands from Sevanagala Sugar Industries in 2011.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, the former MP revealed that he had not received any compensation despite the expropriation of the factory in 2011. Accordingly, he has submitted a fresh claim for compensation amounting to Rs. 27 billion as per current valuations.

However, Gamage declined to provide specifics with regard to the claim submitted on the grounds that it is being canvassed in several court proceedings.

Nevertheless, he noted that Government officials were to blame for the delay in compensating him and that the Government was therefore liable to compensate him based on the current valuations of the appropriated assets.

He added: “According to them, they don’t have a system to value it in terms of the current valuations. Instead, they have given an alternate valuation, which is erroneous. 

“The Government Valuation Department conducted a valuation in 2013 and valued Lanka Sugar. They should have compensated me at the time. We had two court cases against the compensation tribunal to reconsider the valuation. 

“Government officials failed to compensate me. While they paid me an initial advance, if they want to rely on that valuation, they should calculate interest for the delay in compensating me.”

Accordingly, he further stated that he had requested that the Government calculate interest owed in terms of the compounded Treasury bill (T-bill) rates for the past 13 years. 

He further stated that he had faced egregious injustice and that certain political parties had attempted to use his fight for justice for ulterior motives during the ongoing Presidential Election campaign. 

In 2002, the Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC) called for proposals for the sale of 90% of the shares of Sevanagala Sugar Industries Ltd. Thereafter, the bid made by Daya Apparel Export Ltd. – part of the Daya Group of Companies – amounting to Rs. 550 million was accepted. 

However, on 9 November 2011, the Government passed into law the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises or Underutilised Assets Act No.43 of 2011, wherein the fixed assets of Sevanagala Sugar Industries Ltd. were deemed underutilised assets and therefore expropriated in terms of the act’s provisions.

Previously, a compensation tribunal had been appointed under Section 5(1) of this act, which had decided to offer Sevanagala Sugar Industries Ltd. owned by Gamage a sum of Rs. 791 million as compensation. However, Gamage had deemed the compensation grossly inadequate.