Sri Lanka is seeking to revoke the lease to an Indian company of a petroleum storage tank complex in Trincomalee, President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated in Parliament on Friday.
In a speech addressing parliament, Rajapaksa is quoted as saying,
"Our oil storage tanks located in Trincomalee were privatized. We are currently having talks to take them back (under state control)".
The 99 oil tanks, were to be leased to the Indian Oil Company for 35 years, under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2003. However, earlier this year, Sri Lanka refused to sign a lease agreement deal on the storage facility.
ColomboPage reported Rajapaksa as saying the deal was made under the then UNP government, and that the current government wanted to “preserve the state enterprises”, a critical reference to the UNP’s pro-privatisation orientation.
Also see our previous posts:
Bilateral relations? (10 April 2012)
Anyone but the Indians (29 April 2012)
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