Who will cushion crippling blows?

Wednesday 13th October, 2021

The government has demonstrated a disgraceful abdication of responsibility; it does not care to protect consumers, who have been left without anyone to turn to. In fact, one wonders whether there exists a government at all, for some unscrupulous tycoons are running the country to all intents and purposes. A cartel of powerful millers is determining the prices of rice. The government leaders, who boast of having defeated the world’s most ruthless terrorist outfit, cringe and cower before these millers who are above the law. Milk powder importers are emulating the rice millers in pricing their products. The domestic gas suppliers including a state-owned company have effected an unprecedented price hike. Wheat flour importers have also jacked up the prices of their products.

The only thing that the State Minister of Cooperative Services, Market Development and Consumer Affairs Lasantha Alagiyawanna does is to announce price increases. He should be made the ‘State Minister of Price Increases’.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena is tilting at media institutions, as it were, instead of taking on the millers’ mafia and making a serious effort to help cushion the blows consumers are suffering one after another. He has declared in a recent television interview that price increases are inevitable. He once declared that a monthly income of Rs. 7,500 was more than enough for a family of three to live comfortably. According to his economics, one member of each family has to starve to buy a cylinder of gas, which costs Rs. 2,675! When one hears him lash out at former Executive Director of the Consumer Affairs Authority Thushan Gunawardena, who exposed the Sathosa garlic scam, one wonders whether he is the Minister of Trade or the ‘Minister of Tirade’.

The government has apparently taken the masses for asses. It is reported to have decided against increasing fuel prices anytime soon. It seems to think that the public will come to terms with the huge increases in the prices of gas, milk food, rice, etc., with the passage of time, and be in a position to take another shock. But it is mistaken; people’s patience is wearing thin.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has sought to justify its call for fuel price hikes by claiming that it is incurring huge losses to the tune of billions of rupees. This claim may not be untrue, but it should reveal the causes of its losses.

The CPC suffers losses owing to outstanding bills and corruption as well; the Ceylon Electricity Board and the national carrier owe it billions of rupees, we are told. Therefore, it is unfair to pass all its losses on to the captive consumers by way of fuel price hikes. The public has a right to know how much it costs the CPC to import/produce petrol, diesel and kerosene. Various figures are being bandied about, but their reliability is in doubt. The CPC ought to make an official statement to that effect. The people’s right to information must be respected.

The pandemic has no doubt hurt all economies across the globe, albeit to varying degrees, driving all governments to adopt some desperate measures such as printing money, which, if done in excess, increases inflation, as is said to be the case here. Even the US has had to do so; the Federal Reserve is reported to have been creating ‘dollars from scratch at an unprecedented rate to save the US economy’. The cost of shipping has gone up the world over, and the prices of commodities, especially imports, cannot remain static. But the incumbent regime’s ineptitude has worsened the situation here, as can be seen from the pathetic performance of some ministers, and the government leaders’ failure to rein in the Millers’ Mafia, which buys paddy for a song, and sells rice at exorbitant prices, thus exploiting the farmer and the consumer alike. Worse, the government at least does not look keen to help the public or share their suffering. Its grandees are spending colossal amounts of public funds on foreign trips and living the life of Riley while the people are struggling to dull the pangs of hunger.