Casino laws coming again with word game

By Chandani KirindeView(s):

The Government will make a second attempt to gain parliamentary approval to grant tax concessions to two major projects that have run into controversy over allegations that the move would lead to legalising of the casino business. The amended regulations in which the words “entertainment and gaming facilities” have been replaced with the words “associated facilities”, are to be presented under the Strategic Development Projects Act. The regulations will be taken up for debate in Parliament on Thursday and Friday.

One of the projects is to be run by the Australia-based Crown Group headed by casino tycoon James Packer and the other by John Keells Holdings.
Both will “set up and operate Integrated Super Luxury Tourist Resorts”, one along D. R. Wijewardena Mawatha in Colombo 10 and the other in two phases along Glennie Street and Justice Akbar Mawatha in Colombo 2.

The main opposition UNP and the JVP have said they will oppose these regulations. Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said yesterday they would strongly oppose the attempts to grant tax concessions for a casino-related project. The regulations grant a host of tax concessions to the investors in the two projects. They include tax holidays of up to ten years and duty concessions on the import of project-related goods.

The previous regulations which were presented to Parliament in October last year were subsequently withdrawn after an outcry by opposition political parties and religious groups who expressed fears that the legalising of casinos would ruin the culture of the country. www.dailymirror.lk

Tata Motors and DIMO seek greater share of SL’s new car market

Tata Motors together with Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC (DIMO) is aiming for a significant share of the new car market in Sri Lanka through the stylish e-XETA, a top official of the company revealed..

Unveiling the new e-XETA in Colombo recently Pranaw Kumar, Area Manager, Sri Lanka, Tata Motors, said, “Sri Lanka has traditionally been an important market for Tata Motors and the company hopes the new car will help them to achieve a significant share of the new car market in the island”. He noted that they are confident that the passenger vehicle range will continue to be seen as a range that offers superior value to customers in Sri Lanka

The e-XETA will further consolidate the Tata offerings in Sri Lanka, he said, adding it is a new way to look at style, comfort, larger space and performance.

The e-XETA is equipped with a 1.2 litre MPFI engine, and it delivers high fuel efficiency. The GLX variant offers a host of convenient and style features such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, power steering, all four power windows, body coloured bumpers and ORVMs, front and rear fog lamps and 2 tone alloy wheels.

Tata Motors is already the market leader in commercial vehicles in Sri Lanka, industry observers say. It has thus far exported over 70,000 commercial and passenger vehicles to the country. Part of this success has been due to the DIMO’s sales and after-sales facilities available Island-wide, 24-Hour Road Side assistance for TATA vehicles and superior product performance.

The company’s portfolio of commercial vehicles in the country comprises of an entire range from sub 1-tonne small trucks to 49-tonne prime movers and from 14-seater buses to luxury coaches, while the passenger vehicle portfolio—initiated in 2004—already includes Nano, Tata Vista, Tata Indigo CS, Tata Manza and the Tata Safari. Further, Tata Motors has already established a Technical Training Institute in Jaffna, in association with DIMO, and has begun work on a Driver Training School in Hambantota as part of their community development initiatives, a media release said.

As DIMO is celebrating its 75 years of existence in the Sri Lankan market, this specially designed car will be manufactured and launched as a 75th Anniversary Edition.
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Touchwood’s bogus address cons CSE, investors

By Sunimalee Dias

Thai investors ('touch wood') seek justice in Sri Lanka
The Touchwood company crisis has spread outside the shores of Sri Lanka with investors in Thailand suing the company there while in Colombo an attempt to deceive investors has been bared in a Business Times (BT) investigation.

The ‘new’ address of the Touchwood Lanka office as intimated to the Colombo Stock Exchange on February 28 is a bogus one, a BT investigation revealed.

The address given as No. 220, Nawala Road, Nawala belongs to the wife of Kapila Ariyananda who when contacted informed the newspaper that there is no Touchwood office at this location.

According to the BT investigation, Touchwood organisation’s Thai investors plan to file action in Sri Lankan courts in late April. Mr. Ariyananda said the CEO of Touchwood Lanka Kiwlegedara had approached him regarding the premises but “he was never a tenant or operating” from this location. “He came to see the house but he did not pay the rent and we didn’t sign an agreement,” Mr. Ariyananda said. The BT photographer visiting the site of the new address only found an old caretaker who informed him there was no office there.

Mr. Ariyananda said he had already informed the post office not to deliver letters addressed to the Touchwood Group to his address as it was becoming a “nuisance.” In fact, he would be writing to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) through his lawyer to inform of this incorrect address given.

He also revealed that when Mr. Kiwlegedara was contacted on Thursday he was told by him that the latter had already informed the CSE that Touchwood was not at this location but that he was operating from a private address in Horton Place. No such notice has been posted on the CSE website.

Touchwood depositors have gone to the old office premises at Bambalapitiya which was empty and then based on the CSE announcement gone to the Nawala address which also drew a blank. Touchwood details on the CSE website as at Friday still gave the office address as – No. 220, Nawala Road, Nawala and the telephone no. as 4721448. When investors called the no. 0777-077324, which was listed in the February 28 CSE announcement, the response was rude and unpleasant. “One man who picked the phone… I don’t know whether it was Kiwlegedera because they didn’t identify themselves … said I should not bother calling anymore,” one depositor said. The company was owned by Roscoe Maloney and his wife, Swarna who then sold out to a group of investors led by Mr. Kiwlegedera who promised to reignite the crisis-hit firms.

The Maloneys arebelieved to be in Cambodia but wanted for questioning in Colombo.

Thai investors in the Touchwood Forestry Company in Thailand say they were duped by Roscoe Maloney to invest in plantations. They have formed a group and were looking at the possibility of filing action in the Sri Lankan courts against the Touchwood organisation, lawyer and Co-ordinator of the Sri Lanka Touchwood Stakeholders Association, G.S. Lakshan Dias said in an interview with the Business Times.

He noted that most of the Thai investors represented by their organizer Tim Randall would be looking at filing action against the Maloneys in late April. Through the website created for the Thai investors Mr. Randall had highlighted that about 60 per cent comprises Thai nationals who had invested in the properties owned by the Touchwood Forestry Company and about 40 per cent were overseas investors. Currently, there is already a case being heard in the Thai courts against Roscoe Maloney, the website stated. In the meantime, on the winding up case CHC/31/2013/CO against Touchwood in the Commercial High Court, judgment is due on May 5. During the March hearing of the case the Central Bank had joined the case as an intervening party.

Mr. Dias also said that, according to their information. Touchwood’s Hong Kong office would also be closing down in addition to the Dubai office.

The company has offices in Sri Lanka, Australia, Thailand and Dubai according to its website.
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