Expect post-election tax shocks if SLPP wins, warns JVP leader

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake flanked by NPP National List candidate Tuan K. Azoor and Kalutara District candidate Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters on Sunday

By Saman Indrajith

The government is doing exactly the very obverse of what it had promised to win the presidential election, therefore people should not take the SLPP’s promises seriously, says the JVP.

Addressing the media at the party headquarters, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, on Sunday: “The SLPP came to power promising one law for all, but some persons are above the law. The SLPP has on its platform some characters who have Interpol red alerts against their names. They broke the quarantine laws at many places including the funeral of Minister Arumugam Thondaman. The law was bent to save the person who demolished an ancient royal pavilion at Kurunegala. That is how they maintain the rule of law.”

Dissanayake said that 6.9 million people had voted for the SLPP candidate at the last presidential polls, believing that he would not divest national assets. “There is still no clear statement that it would do away with the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with the US. People did not vote for the SLPP to sell off the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port. Trade Unions had to resort to strikes to obtain a promise from the Prime Minister but the problem is far from resolved. There has been a Cabinet paper to demarcate a 10-acre area covering land belonging to the Examinations Department at Malay Street, Police land in the Slave Island

and Air Force premises in adjacent area and to get it under the purview of the Urban Development Authority. We believe that their plan is to sell the entire land off in the near future.”

Dissanayake asked people to brace for massive tax hikes after Aug 5 elections because the SLPP would increase the prices of essential items to raise funds to keep the economy going. “There will be unprecedented price hikes. There will be tax increases. There is a need for a force that could fight against those moves. Only the JVP-led NPP is equal to that task. We’ll have to fight in and outside parliament. We therefore ask the people to cast their votes for the NPP and send as many as NPP members possible to the next parliament.”

NPP National List candidate Tuan K. Azoor and Kalutara District candidate Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe also addressed the press.