The Hambantota Tax
So I called David Peiris (Motor Company) cause I want to buy a trishaw. This was always a dream of mine but people laughed at me. Now that it’s part of a business idea, we were checking out prices. They’re actually horrific, Rs. 450,000 for a new Bajaj 4-stroke. But that’s not what really bothered me. It’s that the dealer said we’d have to pay an extra Rs. 4,300 to transport the thing from Hambantota. Why?
Apparently all vehicles are now being shipped to Hambantota. They give a convincing rationale, saying that the Colombo Port has congestion, but to me, that’s still an extra Rs. 4,300 I have to pay.
Since the Colombo Port is being dramatically expanded, one wonders if this will continue.
Honestly, I think a lot of these Hambantota developments could have been quite happily moved to Trincomallee. Think about it. The Power Minister is saying the Norochcholai power plant would have been better built there as the harbour is deep enough to load coal directly. The harbour itself is naturally one of the deepest natural docks in the world, so no digging required as per Hambantota.
I’m not saying I want to pay equal or more to have a vehicle sent from there, but if we are going to build new things, why not build them where they make slightly more sense? I mean, I’d still be paying to move this thing from Trinco, but building a port there would definitely cost me less as a taxpayer. A port, power plant and airport around Trinco would make physical sense and serve the booming economic area around Anuradhapura and the North and East.
Instead we get lopsided development in the south which we pay for directly through taxes and indirectly through higher prices on stuff people are forced to ship there. Like trishaws.
Posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 in Business, Sri Lanka, transport.
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I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
“Since the Colombo Port is being dramatically expanded, one wonders if this will continue. ”
that really depends. Even after the port is expanded it may not be profitable for the port to allow the land inside to be used as a parking lot.
“Honestly, I think a lot of these Hambantota developments could have been quite happily moved to Trincomallee. ”
Not really. As you can see in the links bellow, there is a major shipping route near the south of Sri Lanka. That was the rationale for the hambantota port.
http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/main_maritime_shipping_routes.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-12/03/content_7266706.htm
http://www.seaweb.org/otherfiles/GlobalShippingImpactsHalpernetal..jpeg
Another best place to build coal power plat will be hambantota. But the minister can’t tell that, can he for obvious reasons?
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20081203/001320d123930aa0490021.jpg
Well, why is it that no ship calls there?
Those maps seem to show Colombo or Galle as being as good or better than Hambantota.
Trincomalee has existing infrastructure, it was the Royal Navy’s base for the Indian ocean. With proper free trade agreements there may be trading opportunities in the region that Trincomalee could be used for. Either way, if they simply tendered it out to the highest bidder in the private sector we would not be having this discussion.
Colombo is already heavily congested and galle has the space issue. Galle harbor is in a densely populated area. It would be very difficult to expand it.
And colombo is being expanded and but they are primarily aiming it to be a container port.
Hambantota was aimed to be a bunkering port.
tender what to the higgest bidder?hambantota to trinco?
Most likely investors would be the Chinese. (Even the colombo south was a partnership between the Chinese)
And can we have a chinese investment in the country can we? Not with the indians.
Even for the chinese built SLPA operated port they (indians) opened a high commission branch in hambantota. If we allow a chinese operated port they would probably invade us.
“Honestly, I think a lot of these Hambantota developments could have been quite happily moved to Trincomallee. ”
Are you kidding?
isnt the proposed sampur plant is in trinco..
also did u take in to the account other costs that have reduced by using the hambanthosta port
http://www.ft.lk/2012/04/04/concessions-for-vehicle-imports-via-hambantota-port/
“isnt the proposed sampur plant is in trinco..”
yes. It was proposed in 2006 as a alternative to Chinese funded norochchole (India does not like chinese building anything here). But it does not seems to be coming up quickly.
Do they have a great love village in Trinco?
The question you might want to ask is this: who owns the transporter lorries that will bring vehicles to Colombo?
Delve into that and I understand you’ll find yet another example of rank corruption.
I dont think we have any of those transporters in Sri Lanka yet (except the miniature models like those my son used to play with). Someone with a lot of cash will have to invest in them, and also take out insurance to cover the new vehicles in transit. Who would they be?
Or else one could save on the cost by driving the new vehicle home from Hambantota I guess, if the importer had an office there to handle all the documentation and stuff. Much hassle.
I overtook several vehicles transporting three-wheelers on the Embilipitiya-Ratnapura Road last week. They were going toward Colombo. I did not realize at that time that they had already started unloading vehicles in Hambantota. Would have taken a photo if I had.
That was some months ago.
Even roro operations started two, three months back.
In most countries no additional charges are separately shown. It does not matter where a product is loaded, it must have the same retail price. This is just a method of the Company or the dealer to find an excuse for a higher charge.
You buy a tractor in Jaffna or Colombo, or for that matter in Hambantota the MSRP is the same, whatever discount the dealer gives is up to them. It is the few cents more a liter that is charged for fuel depending on the distance from Colombo that has got us used to even expecting some excuse like this.
We must simply demand that such costs are absorbed. After all even David Peiris initially absorbed a huge part of the increase in price of the Three Wheeler due to tax out of its profit margin. Now when we get used to the higher prices they have quietly increased the price as they see the demand coming back up. After all it is business and there are no scruples when in comes to making money.
Doesn’t matter which country you are in the end consumer always pays the full cost of the product period. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
I think the dealers are ripping u off. There have been a lot of reductions in taxes for using Hambantota, but they’re just trying to add the transport cost to you instead of just off setting it against other concessions they’re getting.
China has several of these ghost cities too. Incorrectly planned and thrown a lot of money to develop random areas and then to realise there is no return. It’s pretty clear where MR’s gets his advice from. I can’t see many people moving to Hambantota from any other part of SL.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005231/Chinas-ghost-towns-New-satellite-pictures-massive-skyscraper-cities-STILL-completely-empty.html
I saw H’bantota harbour two years ago after it was opened. Everyone who saw that is surely realising what a mistake it was to spend money on that. Should have spent that money on expediting Kandy-Col highway construction.
I heard Norochchole plant was a second-hand hand-me-down, but couldn’t find any site/news article that confirmed it. I assume it is a false tale spread by anti-MR factions. At least I hope so.
Tania,
second hand or not, it is simply not working. Since these are built with public funds the public has a right to know all the details but the very fact that everything is shrouded in secrecy should tell you that something pretty rotton is going on.
Literally speaking, majority of SL authorities are fingered by the Regime or its gang bangs for their personal and political gains. A lot of deals made by these pricks have invisible ‘commissions’ to their offshore bank accounts and these Projects are portrayed as if they are doing the “service” for this island – at the cost of the childrens’ future.
At least you have ships docking in Hambantota Port. It sounds like a success to me. Compare that to Gwadar port in Pakistan. It was build because the Chinese wanted it but no ships dock there at all. It’s a total failure. So be thankful your govt. isn’t totally corrupt.
built*
I see no ships.
Apart from the car carriers, sent there by decree, are there any others using it?
Well i don’t expect to see any ships yet. But few roro ships used it.
Hambantota is designated as a bunkering port but the bunkering facilities are not yet opened.
http://www.ft.lk/2012/07/16/hambantota-bunker-fuel-terminal-to-open-in-october/
Actually, DPMC statement is slightly misleading. Trishaws do not come in Ro-Ro ships which is one of the intended targets of the Hambantota port. DPMC actually has a massive assembly plant in Ranna which is few kms away from Hambantota towards Matara and that has been operating for several years. So if they claim you have to pay extra now cos of the port, it is not correct. They have been shipping assembled trishaws from there all over the country for the past few years even before the Hambantota port was open.