President Miathripala Sirisena has directed the Industries and Commerce Ministry Secretary to release the company’s Jawatta branch land belonging to it to the Police Department and ordered its closure as it has become a white elephant to the government.
Ministry Secretary S.S. Miyanwela confirmed that the decision has been taken at the highest level to close down Salu Sala and pay compensation to all employees.
Sri Lanka’s state owned handloom textile wholesale and retail giant in the 1960s, Lanka Salu Sala is no more with the President’s latest decision to close down the iconic institution.
President Sirisena directed the Ministry Secretary in charge of Salu Sala to release the land belonging to Salu Sala to the Police Department.
He ordered the Ministry Secretary to dissolve the Salu Sala Board of Directors as it is a burden to the government. he secretary to the Ministry of Industries and Commerce.
The closure of the institution and voluntary retirement scheme proposed by the government will signal the end of the only state textile trading enterprise which enjoyed a protected domestic market during the former Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike’s regime in the 60s and early 70s.
Salu Sala was a popular outlet for the elite in Kurunduwatte as well as the middle class in Colombo and suburbs during that period under guidance of its marketing head Earl Dassanayake who turned it around as a money spinner.
Salu Sala has become a white elephant with two land plots of around 100 perches under its non-movable assets.
The sleepy head office complex at Jawatta Road is a rented building with a dilapidated showroom in which samples of old, outdated ‘fashion’ clothes are on display gathering dust.
It has a mini garment factory with some industrial sewing machines which were not used for several years and storerooms stocked with outdated clothing material.
Power supply to the building has been disconnected due to non-payment of electricity bills amounting to a staggering Rs.1.2 million. The Treasury has allocated Rs.340 million to pay compensation for 217 employees under the voluntary retirement scheme on 31 -07-2017. Out of them 76 employees are still struggling to get their EPF benefits as the management has failed to make contributions to the fund.
“A sum of Rs. 7.5 million from this Treasury allocation has vanished into thin air,” a senior official of the Finance Ministry said adding that only God knows what has happened to that money.”
(LI)