Officials of Villa Shipping and Trading have said that the 3 ministers who took part in the press conference held today at the president’s office only focused on one part of Qasims’s claims.
The official said that they talked about money that MIRA is being forced to obtain from Villa due to an order given by the Tourism Ministry. The official said that in Qasim’s speech he talked about 17 million dollars that the state owes to Villa in the last 12 years and that the ministers did not talk about this money.
“Then they talked about the High Court verdict. It does not say that Villa should pay any money to the state. The verdict was only about the agreement. But High Court previously ordered the state to pay 17 million dollars to Villa group. But it is sad that the ministers did not talk about this. It has been 12 years since the government has put a hold on this money” said the official.
When all of things happened like this, the government keeps saying that Qasim is politicizing the issue. Qasim as refuted all claims made by the government by showing the agreements the government made with Villa. Qasim said that since the government is holding the money they owe to Villa, they should give more than 25 million dollars as interest alone. So in total the state now owes 42 million dollars to Villa.
If a company fails to pay the state on time, they get fined and are even charged with interest. However, when the government fails to reimburse money deposited by private companies, courts only let the companies claim for damages in some situations only. In this case, the court refused Villa to claim the interest.
The three ministers focused only on one part of Qasim’s claims !
