Sri Lanka Customs Department has been directed by the Finance Ministry to conduct a prompt inquiry in to the current controversial issue of importing discarded material such as used mattresses in to the country without considering its detrimental impact on environment and public health.
Finance minister Mangala Samaraweera has issued this directive to Director General of Customs Ms. P.S.M. Charles, soon after his return to the island concluding an official overseas visit today (23).
According to Finance Ministry, this stock of waste material has been brought to the island by a local company without obtaining the required license from the Central environmental Authority.
Minister Samaraweera vowed to take stringent legal action against relevant companies responsible for the importing and storing the stock of mattresses which were allowed to perish without restuffing and reprocessing it for several months.
Hayleys Free Zone Limited MD Ruwan Waidyaratne noted that they will find an overseas buyer and reship the stock of mattresses soon after reprocessing it.
However, the Director of the company Amal Rodrigo said that the reprocessing processes had been delayed due to the bankruptcy of the UK Company and there was no one to accept the stock when they return it to the sender.
It has also been revealed that Hayleys Fibre Ltd, the premier manufacturer & exporter of value added coil fiber products to international markets is engaged in the production of a wide range of premium quality mattresses with the opening of a new showroom “Mattress Shop” in Colombo 10 in 2015.
Therefore the management of Hayleys Free Zone Limited cannot wash their hands and absolve from their responsibility claiming that they were not the importer or the owner of the stock of mattresses, Customs official said.
Hayleys Free Zone Limited absolved from any involvement in importing garbage to Sri Lanka while putting the blame solely on Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation (Pvt) Limited ,the importer of these discarded mattresses from UK.
Hayleys Free Zone company vehemently denied allegations against it light of recent adverse media publicity in relation to 130 container loads of used mattresses that are currently stored at its yard premises.
The company clarified that these mattresses were imported by Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation (Pvt) Limited, who is the actual owner of the cargo.
Hayleys Free Zone entered into an agreement with the freight forwarder ETL Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, who was appointed by Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, for the purpose of processing and re-exporting the mattresses in question.
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