Govt. advertises its failure

Wednesday 18th January, 2023

The SLPP-UNP government has proved its rivals’ claim that it has failed. Its grandees never miss an opportunity to boast that their efforts to tackle the economic crisis have shown signs of reaching fruition soon. But Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardena has revealed the truth. Announcing some Cabinet decisions, at yesterday’s press briefing, he disclosed that for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka the payment of salaries of some state workers would be delayed for want of funds.

Claiming that the government revenue for December 2022 had been only Rs. 141 billion, Minister Gunawardena said the state sector salaries, pensions, social welfare, medicines, etc., had cost as much as Rs. 154 billion, and another Rs. 182 billion had been paid as loan interests. The government had been compelled to print more money as a result, Gunawardena said.

The government has left no stone unturned in its efforts to increase its revenue. It has jacked up taxes, water and power tariffs and the prices of petroleum products exponentially and is all out to increase electricity prices again. These extreme measures have boosted the state revenue as never before. The government has also defaulted on external debt, and resorted to import restrictions and fuel rationing. But it has, on its own admission, failed to make even a dent in the economic crisis, despite the drastic measures it has adopted in the name of economic recovery. Thus, there is no guarantee that, at this rate, it will be able to hoist the country out of the current economic crisis. Odds are that the people will have to wait until hell freezes over to witness economic recovery if the current dispensation manages to stay in power. Above all, how many more increases in taxes, tariffs and fuel prices will have to be there before the government can ensure, if at all, that there are enough funds to meet essential expenses? A petti kade mudalali would perhaps have done a better job than the current administration. This is something the public should bear in mind when they vote at future elections.

Now that Minister Gunawardena has revealed that it is extremely difficult to pay the state sector salaries, pensions, etc., and allocate funds for the health sector, the government ought to adopt austerity measures forthwith. Its leaders must cut down on their expenses and set an example to others. They have to curtail unnecessary travel, which costs the public an arm and a leg, and forgo their entertainment allowances. They are seen travelling across the country and around the world while hospitals are experiencing drug shortages and school children are skipping meals and fainting. It amounts to a criminal waste of people’s money to feed horizontally-gifted MPs at Temple Trees, etc., while children are starving and the sick are without medicine. Serious thought should be given to reducing the number of ministers immediately, for these parasitic elements are a burden on the country. That the people cannot afford a bigger Cabinet goes without saying, and the government must not appoint any more ministers. Fund allocations for Parliament, where most MPs neglect their legislative duties and functions and are not even present during its proceedings, should be reduced. A new law should be brought in to decrease or do away with the monthly allowances paid to the MPs and the local government members.

Ceremonies to be held to mark the 75th Anniversary of Independence are expected to cost the public at least Rs. 200 million. They have to be cancelled in view of the current economic crisis, and Independence can be celebrated in some other way. This is what the government leaders should do immediately if they have any consideration towards the hapless public. Tanzania has shown the way. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, was considerate enough to cancel her country’s Independence Day celebrations, last month, and direct that the funds earmarked for the event be used to construct dormitories at schools for children with special needs. It has been reported that in 2015, the then President of Tanzania John Magufuli cancelled the Independence Day celebrations and allocated funds saved therefrom for the development of roads in Dar es Salaam. He did so again in 2020, and the money allocated for celebrations was used to stock up on medical supplies. In this country like no other, money that should have been spent on treating and feeding poor children at state-run hospitals is being utilised for Independence Day celebrations, which will only help boost the egos of some politicians who pretend to be great patriots despite having ridiculed the armed forces at the height of the country’s war on terror, and planned to celebrate the quincentenary of the arrival of the Portuguese invaders here.

What one gathers from Minister Gunawardena’s disclosure is that the government grandees ought to don sackcloth and ashes and fast, besides practising other forms of grim asceticism by way of penance for having mismanaged the country’s economy and bankrupted it.