Children paying for others’ sins

Saturday 1st April, 2023

The Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital (ATH) has been compelled to close its paediatric ward because all four paediatricians who worked there have left the country, according to media reports. This, we believe, is just the beginning of trouble in the health sector. The situation is bound to take a turn for the worse with other hospitals, too, having to downsize for want of doctors and other health professionals. The health service is not alone in this predicament. Human capital flight has taken its toll on all sectors. Universities are reportedly experiencing a severe dearth of teachers, and the crème de la crème of IT professionals are also leaving the country in droves, and the day may not be far off when Sri Lanka ceases to be attractive to foreign IT companies, which hire its youth. One of the main reasons for the disconcertingly unprecedented increase in the number of Sri Lankan professionals going overseas for employment is the newly-introduced tax regime, which has sent them reeling.

Government politicians and their apologists have sought to make light of the ongoing protests against tax increases by claiming that high income earners up in arms are only a miniscule section of the population, and the new tax regime has not adversely affected the vast majority of the public. This argument is seriously flawed, as could be seen from the plight of the children of Anuradhapura due to the closure of the ATH paediatric ward.

Moreover, the purchasing power of the middle class, which the protesting professionals belong to, is necessary for the country’s economic growth; it provides opportunities to various industries such as consumer goods, infrastructure, entertainment, leisure, travel, tourism and education. When it diminishes due to high taxes, rising inflation and increasing interest rates, the entire economy suffers. It is only natural that professionals tend to leave the country when their real income drops with no prospect of their lot improving in the foreseeable future. They are intelligent enough to see that it is nothing but stupid to leave the task of rebuilding the economy to the very politicians who ruined it!

The health sector has been plagued by numerous problems such as chronic drug shortage, and now it has another one to contend with. If it deteriorates further owing to the mass emigration of doctors, only the poor will suffer. Politicians are rich enough to pay for healthcare here or overseas. They, who have bankrupted the country, rush to Singapore if they ever so much as catch a cold while the ordinary people who pay through the nose to maintain them are wait-listed even for serious surgical procedures.

One may have reservations about doctors and other professionals and their trade unions, but it behoves the government to engage them and do whatever possible to redress their grievances, which are legitimate. They are not refusing to pay taxes; they are only asking for some relief. The Opposition has come up with a set of alternative tax proposals and revealed how to keep the PAYE tax at affordable levels without causing a drop in the state revenue.

Its views should be taken on board. Another way out may be to enhance the efficiency of the tax collection process. There are many tax evaders including professionals and big businesses, and if the government casts the net wide, it may be able to increase its tax revenue and grant some relief to those who are crying out for relief while paying taxes dutifully. Most of all, government leaders must meet the representatives of protesting trade unions, and make a genuine effort to work out a compromise formula, instead of going all out to frighten them into submission.