A serious discrepancy has emerged in the revenue figures regarding the SupremeSAT-1 satellite, popularly known as “Chichi’s Rocket”, raising questions over whether she was misled by officials or genuinely confused by formatting errors. These figures were presented to Parliament by PM Harini Amarasuriya on 6 August.
On 6 August, the Prime Minister stated that Sri Lanka had earned Rs. 343,909 million (Rs. 343.9 billion) from the project between 2015 and mid-2023. She also claimed that no public funds were spent on the satellite initiative, which was overseen by Rohitha Rajapaksa, the youngest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The income figures she cited included Rs. 19,617 million for 2015/2016, Rs. 62,545 million for 2020/2021, Rs. 87,789 million for 2021/2022, and Rs. 39,590 million for the first half of 2023.
However, Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe told Parliament the next day that the actual figures were far lower — such as Rs. 19.167 million in 2015/2016 and Rs. 39.5 million in the first half of 2023. He said the Prime Minister’s statement appeared to reflect a formatting error.
Samarasinghe further clarified that the revenue figures referred to the company involved, not the satellite itself, which remains missing. He raised concerns about the company’s finances, including investments, liabilities, and accounting practices.
“This data should have been properly verified before being presented. The mistake lies with the officials who compiled the information,” he said.
Based on Minister Samarasinghe’s remarks, it appears the blunder resulted from decimal points being misread as commas, inflating modest revenue figures into billions. The question now is whether it was a genuine mistake by the Prime Minister, or if officials deliberately introduced the punctuation error in the document provided to her.
While stopping short of directly blaming the Prime Minister, the incident has prompted debate about whether the error was a simple oversight or part of a deliberate attempt to mislead. The Prime Minister’s office is yet to respond or explain how the inflated numbers were included in her official response. However, the PM at the end of her statement said her answer was based on the figures given by the BOI.
