The Sri Lankan government has appointed six “Competent Authorities” that will handle the 37 enterprises that are due to be taken over by the recently passed Assets Acquisition Bill.
The District Secretary of Hambantota and the District Secretary of Monaragala are set to oversee the running of two sugar companies, while the District Secretary of Badulla has been appointed as the Competent Authority for Colombo Commercial Company Limited.
Working alongside these new committees will be a team of five ministers to “assist” them in the management and administration. There is a further team of six “officials”, who will also monitor all operations.
Despite the Central banks statements that "The ... act does not, in any way, constitute the nationalization or the expropriation of private assets", last week the Economist Intelligence Unit said that the takeovers would “raise significant concerns amongst foreign investors”.
See our earlier posts: Indian investors caught out by expropriation act (Nov 2011)
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