COLOMBO - Sri Lankan government officials on Wednesday raided private warehouses to seize thousands of tons of sugar, a day after a state of emergency was declared over food shortages caused by a currency crisis.
"The objective is to prevent hoarding," Major General Senarath Niwunhella, who was named commissioner general of essential services on Tuesday, told AFP."The government will pay a reasonable price to the importers based on the valuations provided to customs.""Today we started with sugar and will expand this action to other commodities like wheat flour and rice too if importers do not release their stocks to the market," he said.
Niwunhella said the seized stocks will be given to state-owned retail stores to sell for below the open market price.