Tell us another one, Mr. Minister

Saturday 7th January, 2023

The government is all out to make a case for postponing the Local Government (LG) elections on the pretext of rationalising its expenditure. State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitya has told reporters that Sri Lanka will set a world record if it holds the LG polls, at this juncture, because no other country beset with a similar crisis will ever spend public funds on an election. As much as Rs. 80 billion has been spent on the public sector salaries, pensions, Samurdhi and fertiliser so far this year while the state revenue during that period has been a mere Rs 26 billion, he has said, claiming that the government is struggling to meet the revenue shortfall, and therefore allocating funds for an election amidst the present crisis will be an uphill task.

Siyambalapitya has said nothing new. He has only repeated what the likes of MP Sanath Nishantha have been saying in support of the government’s desperate attempts to postpone the LG polls, which the SLPP and the UNP are unable to face for obvious reasons. Siyambalapitiya has bandied about some statistics in a bid to mix economics with dirty politics and bolster his claim that the country cannot afford an election at present. This is an absurd argument. Tell us another one, Mr. Minister!

It has now been revealed that the LG polls will cost about Rs. 6 billion. This is no doubt a lot of money, but elections are always costly yet essential. If we are to wait until the current economic crisis is over to hold elections, we will not be able to exercise our franchise for some more years to come, and those who are responsible for creating the present crisis will continue to govern the country, ruining the economy further, and making economic recovery impossible. In other words, the failed leaders will be free to do as they please without caring two hoots about public opinion and the national interest.

What State Minister Siyambalapitiya has left unsaid is that the salaries and pensions of government employees take a huge chunk of the state revenue because the public service has expanded under successive governments, in which he has held ministerial positions. It is believed that the country could manage with only one half of the 1.7 million state employees. Why hasn’t he taken up this issue and called for remedial measures? If the public sector is downsized, a lot of funds could be saved, and the pecuniary woes of the state mitigated to a considerable extent. The government claims to have adopted some measures to achieve that end, but they are not adequate.

Let State Minister Siyambalapitiya be reminded that the government has already set a couple of world records during the past few months. Sri Lanka maintains a huge unproductive Cabinet of ministers despite its crippling economic crisis, and is likely to break that record by appointing some more ministers; it has also done nothing to recover the losses that various scams have caused to the state coffers although the culprits are known.

Will Siyambalapitiya explain why the government has not gone into overdrive to boost its revenue by recovering the losses amounting to Rs. 55 billion, caused by the sugar tax scam? There are other losses that must be recovered.When he was an Opposition MP in the previous Parliament, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene accused the then Minister Daya Gamage of having defaulted on a five-billion-rupee loan obtained from a state bank. If this amount could be recovered, there will be enough funds for the LG polls.