Under the proposed programme, some of the institutions will be sold; others will be closed down, merged or restructured. The process would begin in about two months and be completed by the end of the year, a senior Treasury official said.

Some of the institutions will undergo management improvement.

The 430 entities consist of 39 corporations, 218 companies, and 173 statutory boards. The companies include 21 Regional Plantation Companies.

Among the institutions are the top 20 loss-making State-owned Enterprises which suffered losses running into billions of rupees last year.

The SOEs and losses they suffered last year are as follows:

Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (Rs 615 bn)

Ceylon Electricity Board (Rs 272 bn)

Sri Lankan Airlines (Rs 70 bn)

Ceylon Shipping Corporation Ltd (Rs 4 bn)

National Water Supply and Drainage Board (Rs 3 bn)

and National Housing Development Authority (Rs 1 bn)

The other SOEs are State Engineering Corporation

Hotel Developers Lanka PLC

Lanka Sathosa Ltd

Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation

Micro (Pvt) Ltd.

State Printing Corporation

ITN

Tea Small holding Development Authority

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation

National Livestock Development Authority

Lanka Leyland (Pvt) Ltd.

A National Agency for Public Private Partnership has been established in the Finance Ministry to carry out the restructuring process.

Under the plan, some of the SOEs will be handed over to the private sector with a government regulator overseeing the process.

“The objective of the process will to ensure that the Treasury no longer funds some of these loss-making institutions,” a senior Treasury official said.

By Damith Wickremasekara