United Republican Front leader Patali Champika Ranawaka has alleged that public administration service officers were given special transport allowances and privileges as an inducement to secure their cooperation in maintaining 1,750 double-cab vehicles used by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna activists.

Speaking at a media conference at his party’s headquarters, the former minister described the arrangement as a “strange twist” written into the Budget, Hiru News reported. He put the value of each vehicle at Rs. 250 lakhs — Rs. 25 million — and said the privileges had been extended only to officers of the public administration service, in his account precisely in order to shield the vehicle arrangement.

Ranawaka said he expects to make a substantial disclosure shortly on who currently holds the 1,750 vehicles and what has become of them.

The fiscal case he made alongside it

Ranawaka also attacked the government’s financial management using execution figures. Of the Rs. 1,450 billion allocated for capital expenditure in last year’s Budget, he said, only 18.9 per cent had been used in the first six months, and only about 30 per cent by the end of the first nine months.

He said inflation, which stood at 2.1 per cent in October 2025, would climb to 8.3 per cent during 2026, and that the exchange rate was set to move from Rs. 304 to Rs. 338 to the dollar.

For reference, the rupee was quoted at 332.50/60 to the dollar in Friday’s spot market — short of the Rs. 338 Ranawaka describes as the expected level.

What is not established

This is an allegation from an opposition politician, carried by a single newsroom, and none of it is independently confirmed. Hiru’s filing contains no response from the government, the JVP or the Ministry of Public Administration, and no documentary basis for the vehicle count or the claim that allowances were granted as an inducement.

A search of other verified newsrooms found no second account of the media conference. The report also gives no total cost: at the per-vehicle figure Ranawaka cited, 1,750 vehicles would represent roughly Rs. 43.75 billion, but that arithmetic is this desk’s and no filing states it. Nor does the report identify which budget line he says contains the provision, or say when the vehicles were acquired.

A note on the figure: Hiru’s Sinhala text gives the value as ලක්ෂ 250 බැගින් — 250 lakhs apiece, or Rs. 25 million each. Secondary accounts circulating in English have rendered this as “Rs. 250 million”, a ten-fold overstatement of the per-vehicle figure.