Basil Rajapaksa

Background

Image 1:Basil Rajapaksa.

Basil Rajapaksa, born in 1951, is a Sri Lankan politician. He had his secondary education at Isipathana and Ananda Colleges Colombo. Basil Rajapaksa has dual citizenships in Sri Lanka and in United States of America. He was a member of the Parliament from 2007 to 2015 and 2021 to 2022.

Basil Rajapaksa comes from a family with a background in politics. His father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a member of the Parliament. As of 2024, two of his three brothers, Chamal Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa are active in Sri Lankan politics. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa were elected Presidents and the other (Chamal Rajapaksa), has served as the Speaker of the Parliament.

In the general election in 2020, he was not qualified to compete as he had dual citizenship of The United States of America and Sri Lanka. The constitution of Sri Lanka was amended in October 2020 removing this restriction. In July 2021, he was appointed a Member of the Parliament through the national list of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) filling the vacancy generated by the resignation of Hon. Jayantha Ketagoda MP. Immediately following his appointment, he was sworn in as the Minister of Finance..

Political positions held

• Minister of Finance (8th July 2021 – 3rd April 2022)
• Member of Parliament from the National list (7th July 2021 – 9 June 2022)
• Minister of Economic Development (2010-2015)
• Member of Parliament from the national list (2007 - 2010).
• Senior advisor to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005 – 2010).

Tobacco Related Activities

Participation in Events

Image 2: ITC Colombo ground breaking ceremony with the participation of Basil Rajapaksa (Minister for Economic Development), Y K Sinha (High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka), Y C Deveshwar (Chairman, ITC Limited), Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena (Minister for Investment Promotion), A.J.M. Muzammil (Mayor of Colombo), Ajith Nivard Cabraal (Governer, Central Bank of Sri Lanka) and Daya Ratnayake (Army Commander).

Basil Rajapaksa (Minister for Economic Development) participated in the ground breaking ceremony for ITC One, the Colombo branch of the hospitality chain of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC).

Influencing Tobacco Control Policies

On 20th February 2015, when the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Act amendment on Pictorial Health Warnings (PHWs) was presented for the approval of the parliament, then Minister of Health Rajitha Senarathna revealed that Basil Rajapaksa had opposed the Pictorial Health Warnings and had not allowed the proposal to be tabled as a cabinet paper.

The aforementioned amendment to the NATA Act was necessary because Supreme Court ordered to reduce the size of the PHWs to 50% - 60% of the surface area of cigarette packs when Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) took legal action against the Gazette issued by Minister of Health to implement PHWs covering 80% of the surface area of cigarette packs. CTC is the British American Tobacco (BAT) subsidiary in Sri Lanka with a monopoly to manufacture and trade cigarettes in Sri Lanka]]. Please refer to our page Ceylon Tobacco Legally Challenging Pictorial Health Warnings in Cigarette Packs for more details.

Obtaining Sponsorship for Construction of Agro-wells

In 2014, during his tenure as the Cabinet Minister of Economic Development, the relevant Ministry partnered with Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) to construct 100 agro-wells under SADP Agro-wells programme. The project was conducted in Weli-Oya, an agricultural area in the dry zone in Sri Lanka, with the support of the Weli-Oya District Secretary

SADP Agro-wells, launched in 2014, is a variant of the Sustainable Agriculture Development Programme (SADP), the main Corporate Social Investment (CSI) project of the Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC), the British American Tobacco (BAT) subsidiary holding monopoly of cigarette manufacturing and sales in Sri Lanka. Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) cultivates the tobacco needed for their manufacturing process domestically and is known to use various tactics to engage farmers to initiate and sustain tobacco cultivation in Sri Lanka. The CTC Annual Report 2015 (Page 93) mentioned “Construction of 100 agro wells” as one of their CSI projects (Image 3). The CTC Annual Report 2016 (Page 111) categorised the progamme under SADP Agro-wells

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the World Health Organization global convention on tobacco control, Articles 13 and 5.3 recommend to ban sponsorship, CSI activities and interactions of government officials and agencies with the tobacco industry.

Image 1: Excerpt of the image of the CTC Annual Report 2014 reporting “Construction of 100 agro-wells”.

Alcohol Related Activities

Parliamentary statement on duties of the Excise department

On 7th September 2021, Hon. Minister Basil Rajapaksa made a statement in the parliament referring to “making healthy addictive substances available to the public” as one of the functions of the Excise department. He further mentioned that the closure of alcohol sales outlets in the COVID-19 lockdown period negatively affected the tourism industry, led to a reduction of government revenue from excise tax and to an increase of illicit alcohol production. This is a misinterpretation of the functions of the Excise Department as stated in the Excise Ordinance while the statement indirectly promoted alcohol as a “healthy product”. None of the addictive substances, especially alcohol and tobacco, are healthy in whatever form or way they are marketed.

It is a well-established fact that governments have a net economic loss with regards to excise tax from alcohol. A study revealed that the total direct and indirect economic and social costs of alcohol were LKR 119.66 billion in 2015. According to the Annual report of Ministry of Finance of the same year, the government revenue from the excise tax on alcohol was LKR 105.23 billion. This comparison shows that overall it is a net loss to the government even though the taxes from alcohol accounted for around 7.2% of the total government revenue.

Impact

Media reports quoted the speech of Minister Rajapaksa in the Parliament highlighting the loss of government revenue from the excise department due to the COVID-19 lockdown (Image 4).

Image 4: Media reporting the loss of government revenue due to COVID-19 lockdown

Several health promotion stakeholders in Sri Lanka publicly criticised the speech of the Finance Minister on public and social media platforms. Centre for Combating Tobacco issued a press release on 11th September 2021 urging the Sri Lankan Government to be more attentive in making such statements in the future. CCT also pointed out that the government needs to employ an evidence-based rational tax policy in order to increase the government revenue while making alcohol control more effective in Sri Lanka (Image 5).

Image 5: Press briefing issued on the statement of Finance Minister on the duties of the Excise Department

Tobacco Unmasked Resources

Other relevant TobaccoUnmasked entries:

• Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC)
• ITC Limited India
• Ceylon Tobacco Legally Challenging Pictorial Health Warnings in Cigarette Packs
• Mahinda Rajapaksa
• Gotabaya Rajapaksa
• Faisz Musthapha
• Attempts of Ceylon Tobacco to Sustain Tobacco Cultivation in Sri Lanka

The local language translations