Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe told Parliament yesterday that the Board of Investment (BOI) had provided inaccurate financial data to Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya regarding the SupremeSAT satellite project, raising fresh questions about the long-disputed initiative.
Responding to a parliamentary query earlier this week, the Prime Minister had stated that the government had not invested any public funds into the SupremeSAT-1 project, citing official BOI data. She also tabled revenue figures reportedly submitted by the company, showing consistent income growth over several fiscal years.
However, Minister Samarasinghe contradicted those claims on Thursday, asserting that SupremeSAT had generated only Rs. 342 million, and that earnings were linked to company operations, not from satellite-based services. He added that key discrepancies had been identified in the financial records submitted by the firm.
According to the Minister, SupremeSAT Pvt. Ltd. entered into an agreement with the BOI in May 2012 and launched the project in November of the same year. The company declared Rs. 12.14 billion in assets in 2012, with subsequent filings showing a satellite lease investment of just Rs. 12 million. Curiously, asset and liability details from 2014 and 2015 were absent from the financial reports, and the current location of the satellite remains unverified.
Samarasinghe also clarified that the government had not spent USD 320 million on the project—countering a long-standing claim promoted by the National People’s Power (NPP) during its election campaigns. He confirmed that a formal investigation into the matter has been initiated.
In her earlier statement, Prime Minister Amarasuriya maintained that the project was undertaken by Supreme Global Holdings through its subsidiary SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd., under a BOI agreement that categorized it as a private, domestically focused venture with a total investment of Rs. 1.828 billion. The satellite system was intended to provide telecommunication and broadcasting services across Sri Lanka.
Despite the diverging narratives, Dr. Amarasuriya reiterated that all figures presented in Parliament were sourced directly from official BOI documentation.
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