Legislation drafted to make SOEs present annual report mandatory

On Oct 3, 2023

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Legislation is being drafted to require State owned enterprises to compulsory present annual reports and then move towards forwarding quarterly reports, said Chairman of the SOE Restructuring Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Suresh Shah.

“Unlike a listed entity which may have 1,000 share holders the SOE’s has to account to over 22 million people hence they have to be more accountable. This is a very good step that would be done to make SOE’s more accountable similarly to listed companies.”

Speaking as the Chief Guest at the Annual Conference of APFASL, which is the public sector wing of CA Sri Lanka, yesterday he added that SOE Restructuring Unit is there not only to delist SOE’s but also to do this kind of work which makes SOE’s more accountable.

Shah also said that the Ceylon Petroleum Cooptation (CPC) held a monopoly which resulted in them selling aviation fuel at premium prices. “Due to this operational expenditure, of SriLankan Airlines increased by 30%.’ (I’m not saying that they (SriLankan) made losses because of their losses.)

However due to several reasons the two enterprises, the Petroleum Corporation and Sri Lankan Airlines made losses and they went to State banks asking for bailout packages as no commercial bank would lend to these institutions. Government too did not have the funds to pump these two bodies.

“However the two bodies could not pay State banks on time ‘upsetting’ the balance sheets of State banks. This is not a sustainable situation.” Due to this we are also hoping to introduce legislation where the Treasurer would not give any guarantees to SOE’s to borrow from State Banks and hence they will have to go to private banks. “This suggestion made by our unit has been accepted by the Cabinet. SOE’s have 22 million shareholders and the Cabinet has accepted the proposal that SOE’S have to give an annual report and a quarterly report.”

President CA Sri Lanka Sanjay Bandara said that they too have introduced many award ceremonies where the public sector too come and get awarded. “I must also say that the Sri Lankan public sector is working very closely with private institutions like us and this is very praiseworthy.”

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