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Taking
free uniforms to the cleaners
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Plans
initiated by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to provide
school children with uniforms produced locally look set
to run into trouble as the bulk of the local producers
do not have the adequate machinery to produce the
material.
Decision
On
July 9, a meeting was held at the Industries Ministry
attended by Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera,
Director, Textile Training and Services Centre, D.P.
Gunawardena, Additional Secretary, Industries Ministry,
Roy Jayasinghe, Additional Secretary, Education
Ministry, Thile Nadaraja and Secretary,
Industries Ministry, Dr. U. Vidanapathirana. At this
meeting the decision was made to allocate 9.7 million
meters of material to local producers. Of that, 2.6
million will be produced from yarn while the remaining
6.7 million would be produced from imported gray
material (raw textile), according to the guidelines. |
President
Chandrika Kumaratunga |
The
government officials told the local producers who were at the
meeting that if they did not take up the orders this time,
they nor any other local producers would be given such orders
in the future. The textile or
the finished product can be imported from China, which
would be an easy recourse if local production and supply fail.
However, evaluations carried out by the Textile Services
Training Center have revealed that only three of the 12
shortlisted companies have the capacity and the machinery to
produce the material.
Only
Cliftex Industries, Maghooras Industries and Sigiri Weaving
Mills have the adequate capacity to produce the material
according to the evaluation carried out by the institute. The
evaluations were carried out soon after shortlisting.
Source
within the Industries Ministry said most of the factories have
not even opened LCs to import the material. According to the
guidelines the finished material should be made available to
the Ministry on October 31 - in two months time.
Trouble
at the start
The
plan to provide free uniform material had run into trouble
right from the very inception. In June, a quantity of 2.1
million meters of white shirting material was given to Hybro
Industries. This was done by a mere letter from Additional
Secretary, Jayasinghe. In his letter he said that Hybro was
willing to provide the material at Rs. 65, plus VAT, plus Rs.
2 packing charges per packet. However, the story hit the press
in July with The Sunday Leader giving details of the
controversial deal.
The
pro-JVP Lanka tabloid led with a story subsequently that the
whole deal might cost the government Rs. 300 million.
Industries Ministry sources said the bad press made Hybro pull
out and thereafter a plan was devised to distribute its 2.1
million metres among the rest of the producers. Jayasinghe's
letter is not on any official letterhead nor does it contain
any official seal, just Jayasinghe's designation of additional
secretary. The
letter has been removed from most of the relevant files at the
departments and the ministries.
Kumaratunga
implemented the plan 'to aid the ailing local garment
industry' and in May this year, she got cabinet approval and
handed over the scheme to the Industries Ministry.
The
Industries Ministry called for suppliers by way of a public
advertisement on May 21 and 12 suppliers were shortlisted. On
June 2, the representatives from the 12 suppliers met with
Jayasinghe, Gunawardena , Silva and Nadaraja. It was at this
meeting that the initial decision was taken that of the 9.3
million meters needed, 2.6 million would be manufactured 100%
in Sri Lanka from imported yarn
and the remaining 6.7 million be made from imported raw
gray cloth.
Local
rates
The
local production rates as given by the producers were Rs. 75
for a white shirt made in Sri Lanka from imported yarn, Rs. 65
if made from imported gray material, Rs. 120 per blue trouser
from imported grey cloth and Rs. 106 per white trouser made
from grey cloth.
The
inspection of the factories and the evaluation was carried out
when the committee overseeing the scheme felt it necessary to
do so. The evaluation found that Magsons and Pathima
Distributors did not have the adequate capacity and Sha
Textiles was closed.
The
same evaluation found that Vanguard, Backsons, Duro and Star
did not have adequate machine capacity to process imported raw
material.
If
the material is not imported soon to start the process, to
meet the deadline, the finished product would have to be
imported. Then the cost would be around Rs 40 less than the
local production rate. Given Sri Lanka's past experiences, the
fear among some in the Ministry is that imported finished
products would be quoted local production prices that were
decided initially. Then the profit would be huge.
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