Sri Lankan parliament passed 2014 Appropriation Bill; Sri Lanka is considering to take back the 99 oil tanks in Trincomalee that were leased to Lanka IOC; Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan made a two days official visit to Sri Lanka; Iranian sh
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    • (DECEMBER 16-22)

    According to reports, Sri Lanka parliament passed the government's 2014 Appropriation Bill on December 20, 2014 with a majority of 95 votes. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against the budget. 1

    In another development, according to reports, During the reply speech at the last budget debate on December 20, 2013 in parliament Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the government was considering to take back the 99 oil tanks in Trincomalee that were leased to Lanka IOC, the local subsidiary of Indian Oil Company. The China Bay petroleum storage tank complex was handed over to India's state-run Indian Oil Corporation in 2002 by the UNP government which was in power between 2002 and 2004. The tank farm in 850 acres of land has 99 tanks each with the capacity to hold 12,100 metric tons of oil. In 2003, Lanka IOC bought one-third share in Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd which operates the China Bay tank farm. The Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC) entered into a MoU with Lanka IOC to grant a long-term lease to the Indian firm for operating the 99 storage tanks at Trincomalee for 35 years for an annual fee of only $100,000. The China Bay tank farm that connects to the Trincomalee harbor is of historic and strategic significance and it is the largest tank farm located between the Middle East and Singapore. It was built by the British in 1930s to supply fuel to Royal Navy ships. 2

    Reports noted that Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq arrived in Sri Lanka on December 19, 2013 on a two days official visit, on an invitation extended by his Sri Lankan counterpart Chamal Rajapaksa. 3

    Reports noted that the two Iranian ships IRIS Alborz and IRIS Bandar Abbas and the submarine Yunes visited Port of Colombo on December 20, 2013. 4

    In other developments, according to reports, the Sri Lankan government has awarded a US$ 74 million contract to the California-based US engineering firm Tetra Tech to set up a new water treatment plant. 5

    According to reports, the Sri Lankan government has received a SL Rs 15.5 billion (Japanese Yen 12.381 billion) loan from the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to construct major bridges on the nation's roads. The loan will be utilized to construct 37 major bridges on the country's roads under the Major Bridges Construction Project of the National Road Network. 6 The Japanese government, strengthening the long term economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, has agreed to grant the government Rs. 520 million under Non Project Grant Aid. The Sri Lankan government has decided to utilize the grant to provide advanced medical equipment to health care facilities to improve their services and uplift the health standards of Sri Lankan public. 7

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