Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera is to brief President and Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies Ranil Wickremesinghe regarding relevant officials of the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry for not having taken any action on a request made by the Agriculture Ministry to impose a tax on imported potatoes during the local potato harvesting season.
Speaking to the media yesterday (12), Amaraweera said that Agriculture Ministry Secretary Gunadasa Samarasinghe had requested Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena to impose a tax on imported potatoes during the harvesting period of the local potato cultivations, as the price of potatoes received by local farmers is greatly reduced due to such imports.
Although it is the Government’s responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of such farmers, he said that the relevant officials of the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry have, however, not taken any action on the said request. Therefore, he said that he hopes to brief Wickremesinghe on the matter at the Cabinet of Ministers meeting to be held today (13).
Amaraweera also said that the Agriculture Ministry has initiated a programme to discourage the import of potatoes during the harvesting period of local potato cultivations, thereby ensuring a fair price for local farmers’ products. Due to Governments importing potatoes during the harvesting seasons of local potato cultivations, he said that farmers have become greatly helpless due to the non-receipt of a fair price for their products in the past.
Under the Agriculture Sector Modernisation Project, the production of seed potatoes in Sri Lanka is expected to be increased to nine million potatoes. At present, about 100 acres of seed potato cultivation is being done in the Boralanda area and for this purpose, the Minister advised the relevant officials to identify more land in that area and encourage farmers to expand seed potato cultivation.