Former Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera stated that senior officials at the Finance Ministry, by withholding funds from the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB), allowed the rice mafia to exploit both farmers and consumers.
Amaraweera said that during his tenure as Agriculture Minister, he repeatedly requested funds from the Finance Ministry to enable the PMB to purchase paddy. However, senior officials, along with the then Presidential economic advisor, refused to allocate the necessary funds.
In a media statement, the former Minister elaborated on this issue, stating that due to these actions, the rice mafia was able to exploit both farmers and consumers.
“These officials disregarded even the instructions given by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe. There is now a severe shortage of Nadu rice in the market. All the Yala season’s paddy harvest is held by major mill owners. Ministry officials provided funds to small and medium-scale mill owners to purchase paddy, but this policy brought relief to neither farmers nor consumers. The responsibility for the current rice shortage and price increase lies with the senior officials at the Finance Ministry,” he asserted.
Amaraweera added, “I repeatedly raised this issue, and finally, they allocated Rs. 500 million. However, by then, all the paddy was in the hands of large mill owners. Some representatives of political parties who accused the PMB of not buying paddy didn’t even provide a single grain.”
“If the officials at the Finance Ministry had acted in time to provide funds to the PMB, there would be no rice shortage today, nor would prices have risen,” he concluded.
Despite these challenges, Amaraweera acknowledged that a high paddy yield was achieved during the Yala season. The government provided fertilizer subsidies to the farmers, and President Ranil Wickremesinghe allocated Rs. 50 billion for the last five seasons.
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