The Sri Lanka Transport Board is losing nearly Rs. 20 million a day to fraudulent practices by bus conductors, Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake said at a public event on Thursday, calling the losses “a leakage of public funds” that has hollowed out the state bus operator.
Rathnayake said the damage extends well beyond buses themselves. “Not just buses, but the entire SLTB administration, including its human resources framework, has been destroyed,” he said, framing the crisis as institutional rather than operational. The Minister rejected any speculation that the board might be sold off to address the losses. “We will not sell SLTB. We will develop it,” he declared, promising sweeping reforms to restore accountability and efficiency.
The Minister warned that officials and employees unwilling to adapt to new standards would be removed and that new regulations would be drafted if necessary to enable decisive action against corruption. “Those who don’t change will be removed,” he said.
Rathnayake’s comments put a figure on a long-standing problem at the SLTB, which operates thousands of buses across the country and has struggled with chronic losses, ageing fleets and conductor-level ticket revenue leakage. A daily loss of Rs. 20 million implies annual leakage of around Rs. 7.3 billion if sustained, placing the board among the highest-bleeding state-owned enterprises in the transport sector.
The statement marks the second accountability push Rathnayake has led in April, following earlier cabinet-approved fisheries fuel subsidies and his negotiation of the political-level Russia oil supply deal in his dual transport and highways portfolio. It also lands as the government is under pressure to demonstrate fiscal discipline ahead of Friday’s no-confidence debate against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody and amid the IMF’s staff-level agreement on the combined fifth and sixth reviews.
