Does Lal Kantha’s statement of assets and liabilities state that he owns securities worth Rs. 38 crores?

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Under the Anti-Corruption Act, political representatives are required to submit their statements of assets and liabilities to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. Against this backdrop, the statement that has drawn the most attention in recent days is that of Minister Lal Kantha. The question of how the same Minister, who had previously claimed he could not afford to pay his daughter’s tuition fees, has now accumulated such an amount of wealth has become a widely discussed topic on political platforms. However, certain details included in this statement appear to have been reported in a misleading manner.

Below is a fact-check we carried out on this matter.

Social Media Posts :

Hiru News broadcast a news report with the headline, “Minister Lal owns assets exceeding 46 crore.” The report stated that this asset value was based on the statement of assets and liabilities submitted by Minister Lal Kantha, and it was presented as follows.

Facebook

More posts carrying the same theme were also shared on Facebook, as shown below.

While the assets were presented as worth 46 crores, the total value of securities purchases was reported as Rs. 383,906,705.40, as shown below.

Moreover, the same information was also reported by the Divaina news website in the following manner.

Archived Link

Based on the requests we received regarding the accuracy of this claim, we carried out a fact-check.

Fact Check :

According to the official website of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, Minister Lal Kantha submitted his statement of assets and liabilities to the Commission on December 26, under the Anti-Corruption Act No. 9 of 2023.

In the verification of this statement, the following details were found.

Under immovable assets, the statement lists properties received through gift deeds as follows:

A 2,500 sq. ft. residential building and a 10-perch land valued at Rs. 6 million.

A permanent building and a 20-perch garden valued at Rs. 2.5 million.

A 4,500 sq. ft. residential building and a 14-perch land valued at Rs. 56 million.

Under inherited properties:

A 1,500 sq. ft. residential building and a commercial building valued at Rs. 2.5 million.

Under movable assets:

Gold jewellery worth Rs. 1.6 million (8 sovereigns) and another gold pound valued at Rs. 3 million.

A motor vehicle worth Rs. 4.5 million.

Under annual income sources:

Pension income: Rs. 771,400.00

Salary income: Rs. 738,918.16

Rental income: Rs. 4,000,000

Fixed deposit interest income: Rs. 2,755,851.97

However, after a proper examination, it was observed that while media reports and social media posts have presented Minister Lal Kantha’s assets and liabilities as listed in the statement, the value of securities purchases has been reported in a misleading manner.

According to the Minister’s statement of assets and liabilities, the securities purchases have been invested in 10 private institutions.

Brown Investment had securities investments made in two instances, with a total of 648 shares valued at Rs. 4,276.80.

Blue Diamond Jewelry had 20,550 securities, valued at Rs. 6,165.00.

Hela Apparel Holdings had 980 securities, valued at Rs. 3,038.00.

JAT Holdings had 209 securities, valued at Rs. 9,823.00.

Ceylon Land & Equity PLC had 440 securities, valued at Rs. 4,576.00.

Lanka Credit & Business Finance had 5,450 securities, valued at Rs. 41,420.00.

Chevion Lubricant had 200 securities, valued at Rs. 36,100.00.

Expack Cartons had 550 securities, valued at Rs. 7,645.00.

Renuka Holdings had 416 securities, valued at Rs. 19,552.00.

Sunshine Holdings had 320 securities, valued at Rs. 10,880.00.

The total value of these securities amounts to Rs. 143,476 (one hundred forty three thousand four hundred seventy six rupees).

However, by taking the figures in the “value” column of the declaration of assets and liabilities and multiplying them by the figures in the “number of shares” column, these amounts have been incorrectly treated as unit prices of the respective investments in the above-mentioned institutions.

As a result, several mainstream media outlets, as well as social media posts, have misleadingly reported the total value of the Minister’s securities as Rs. 383,906,705.40 (Securities of thirty eight crores, thirty nine lakhs, six thousand seven hundred and five rupees and forty cents).

In reality, the “value” column in the declaration represents the total value of the securities held, not the unit price.

A comparison is shown below, highlighting the actual unit prices of the above securities purchases and how they have been misleadingly reported.

Institutions	Value	No: of Shares	Unit Price	Misleadingly Reported Prices by Miscalculating Share Values
Brown Investment	2296.8	348	6.6 Archived	799,286.4
Brown Investment	1980.06	300	6.6	594,018
Blue Diamond Jewelry	6165	20550	0.3 Archived	126,690,750
Hela Apparel Holdings	3038	980	3.1Archived	2,977,240
Jat Holdings	9823	209	47.0 Archived	2,053,007
Ceylon Land & Equity Plc	4576	440	10.4 Archived	2,013,440
Lanka Credit & Business Finances	41420	5458	7.6 Archived	226,070,360
Chevion Lubricant	36100	200	180.5 Archived	7,220,000
Ex-Pack Corrugated Cartons PLC	7645	556	13.8 Archived	4,250,620
Renuka Holdings PLC	19552	416	47.0 Archived	8,133,632
Sunshine Holdings	10880	320	34.0Archived	3,481,600
Total	143,476			384,283,953

By examining the unit prices of securities in the above-mentioned institutions separately, it was observed that when the reported value in the statement of assets and liabilities is divided by the number of units held by Minister Lal Kantha, the resulting unit prices are consistent, and some unit prices are close to the stated values. Accordingly, the total value of securities reported in certain media and social media posts regarding the Minister’s holdings is misleading.

Minister Lal Kantha

We also contacted Minister Lal Kantha for clarification. He stated that, on legal advice, he is unable to comment on the matter. However, he also noted that legal action would be taken against those spreading false information.

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Conclusion:

Our investigation shows that the claim circulating on social media and reported by mainstream media that Minister Lal Kantha’s securities purchases amount to Rs. 383,906,705.40 is misleading. According to the statement of assets and liabilities, the actual value of the Minister’s securities holdings is Rs. 143,476 (one hundred forty-three thousand four hundred seventy-six rupees).

However, several media outlets and social media posts have misrepresented the number of shares held across 10 investment institutions as unit values and then have multiplied them by their values. This has been reported by above-mentioned media outlets and on social media in a misleading way, stating that the total value of securities purchases is a higher amount.