The Port made an operating profit of Rs. 900 million in 2014 and Rs. 1,200 million in 2015. These are investments that last centuries, and a new harbour that opened in 2011 cannot be expected to produce profits by 2012. The writer further claims that the present Government was compelled to lease the Port to China because they were unable to repay the loan taken to build it. The total cost of financing the Hambantota Port (capital plus interest) will be $ 1,761 million by the time the loan expires in 2036. By the end of 2016, nearly $ 500 million of this total amount had already been repaid. There was never any problem about meeting the payments for the Hambantota Port because it was paid out of the profits of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). The Auditor General's report for 2014 states that the profit of the SLPA in 2014, after paying all loans and taxes, was Rs. 8.8 billion.
පුරේ ඉන්නවද බන් මෙහෙම සුදු කෑලි...
