Sinners stoning one another

Saturday 12th February, 2022

The past few weeks have seen an uptick in the incidence of sinners in the garb of MPs trading insults, and even raw filth in some instances. They are washing loads and loads of dirty linen in Parliament much to the amusement of the public, who have been left without any other form of entertainment. They do not spare even those who are not members of the House, where mudslinging has become the norm.

The government has stepped up propaganda attacks on its rivals, the latest being on a trade union boss in the health sector. Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena launched into a tirade against the union chief, who, he claimed, had served as a National List MP of the UNP for five days, obtained a duty-free vehicle permit, and sold it for as much as Rs. 60 million. The unionist has incurred the wrath of the government by launching a strike.

Whether the trade union boss has sold his duty-free vehicle permit, we are not in a position to verify. But if he has done so and received Rs. 60 million, as alleged by Minister Abeygunawardena, then his claim that he is among the health workers who are experiencing financial difficulties and in need of a pay hike cannot be true. However, he could always claim that as a trade union leader, he is fighting for others.

Most members of the current Parliament have sold their vehicle permits, we are told. Initially, it was illegal to do so, and even the vehicles bought by permit holders could not be sold before the expiration of five years from the date of purchase. Most of those who obtained permits, however, sold them, but they had to do so on the sly. The MPs were the worst culprits. There was a huge public outcry over that illegal practice. When pressure mounted on the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa to put an end to it, he, true to form, came out with a brilliant solution to the problem. He legalised the sale of duty-free vehicle permits!

Meanwhile, if an ordinary MP could earn as much as Rs. 60 million after a five-day stint in Parliament, how much a Minister is able to earn is the question. How many duty-free vehicles has Minister Abeygunawardena obtained? Has he sold any of them? He has been in Parliament for nearly two decades and must have got at least four duty-free vehicle permits worth Rs. 60 million each, according to his own calculations. If he had sold all of them, he would have earned Rs. 240 million. If he had bought duty-free vehicles and sold them, he would have earned much more. It will be interesting to know what he has got to say. The same goes for other MPs and ministers, both past and present. Have they declared what they have earned from the sale of duty-free vehicle permits, to the taxman?

Duty exemptions given to the MPs for vehicle imports while the taxman is squeezing the ordinary people dry to boost the state revenue amounts to a criminal waste of public resources. Not even the MPs in developed countries enjoy such perks. In Sweden, only the Prime Minister is entitled to an official vehicle, and all other MPs have to travel in buses and trains, or use their own vehicles. This may explain why that country has achieved progress.

Atop duty-free permits, soft loans are made available to the MPs to purchase their dream vehicles. Minister of Water Supply Vasudeva Nanayakkara has made a song and dance about some MPs’ unpaid water bills. His efforts to recover the water bill arrears from the politicians concerned is commendable. But the outstanding water bills pale into insignificance in comparison to the loans the MPs are said to have defaulted on.

Could Minister Nanayakkara, or Minister Abeygunawardena, or anyone else in the present Parliament tell us how much the MPs owe the banks, and how many of them have defaulted on their loans?