Diehard Harsha raises EPF deals for sixth time in Parliament; fires back at Amunugama’s answers

By Ashwin Hemmathagama

Our Lobby Correspondent

Controversial EPF share purchase transactions came into the limelight yesterday in Parliament, with UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva raising the issue for the sixth time in a row in the form of a question for oral answers, which was previously skipped by Minister of Finance.

However, the answer Minister of International Monetary Co-operation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Sarath Amunugama presented yesterday was not up to the expectation of Dr. De Silva, who pointed out that Minister Amunugama was “not providing the details for the questions in the order paper”.

However, Minister Dr. Amunugama insisted that the “responses given are adequate and comprehensive, which should be taken into consideration with the annexes tabled”.

“During 2010 and 2011 EPF has carried out 3,937 purchases and 1,453 sales through the Colombo Stock Exchange. As per section 5 (I) (h) of Employees’ Provident Fund act No.15 of 1958, the Monetary Board has published statement of investment showing purchase price (cost) and market value of equity market transactions for 2010 in the EPF Annual Report. Information in respect of the investments made during 2011 has been submitted to the Minister of Finance together with the Annual Accounts 2011,” said Dr. Amunugama.

“The EPF has been carrying out stock market transactions during 2010-2011. The total volume of equity market transactions carried out through brokers during the period 2010 and 2011 were Rs. 37,178 million and Rs. 35,104 million respectively. Total transaction cost including amounted to Rs. 256 million and Rs. 285 million during the period 2010 and 2011 respectively,” Amunugama added, requesting Dr. De Silva to submit his queries as a separate question for oral answers in the future.

A visibly disappointed Dr. De Silva in his response said: “The answers you gave have nothing do to with the questions I asked. The spirit of this question is to pinpoint certain transactions. For example, the entire calamity of NSB purchasing shares of TFC is one transaction. So, there have been many transactions that we need to get into in the EPF portfolio. We need to know what these purchases and the sales were. The 2011 annual report of the EPF has still not been presented to this House. This is November 2012 and it is Rs. 1 trillion of workers’ money. You giving a summary document will not help.”

Agreeing with Minister Dr. Amunugama, Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe said: “The Minister has offered to answer any further questions. I suggest that if the member has any question, that be put forward to the Minister as the Chief Whip has suggested; we can dispose all this on the last day when the Finance Ministry votes are being taken. We can also debate and discuss about the EPF Annual Report as well during the committee stage.”