Burdens for the people: Where are we heading?

The periodic petrol price hike has arrived and we are back to the calculators on how to balance our budget, the Central Bank says the economy is growing, inflation is coming down and the public has nothing to worry. But only poor folks like us living on our sweat understand how tough life is; you settle the utilities and the disposable income is zero!

As simple citizens of a country fighting a war we understand well the difficulties of government finance, but our question is what is governance and do we have capable competent people to advise those in power.

We hear from the chairman of CPC his woes of the mounting losses, but what is he doing to mitigate these, simply passing the buck to the public is not the answer.

The latest hike in kerosene is an unbearable blow to the poorest. It was in the early sixties that CPC was founded on sound principles and the board was headed by an eminent citizen of that time N. E. Weerasooriya Q.C and the board consisted of well known scientists and engineers who committed themselves to a national cause. The CPC made giant strides but politicization gradually set the rot with acceleration during the last three decades.

The Ceylon Transport Board is no exception in its formative years they had such strong professionals like Dr W M Tilekaratna and T P Gunewardene, well respected public servants working their heart out with no political agendas.

The Ceylon German Training school, Werahera work shop and the driving schools were some of the instruments that gave sustenance to these institutions before the political cancer set in. The main aim of the politicians in power of both divides using these institutions to provide jobs to their supporters was further aggravated by the present electoral system.

The story of the Railway is most pathetic and saddening. Giants like B. D. Rampala who headed this institution not only provided good service to the public but did not place undue burden on the funds provided by the public to the treasury. But today the Railway is a disaster eating into public funds and unable to provide public the service they deserve.

With the nationalization of the plantations we sacrificed on a platter our competitive position in the global markets and paved the way for Africans to develop their industry. Fortunately the divesting of the state ownership in the nineties saved us from total disaster and today the plantation sector is contributing to the revenue as against consuming it for mismanagement and incompetence. Partial privatization of the port has introduced some competitive spirit to improve output strengthening our valuable transshipment business and the key hub pot status.

Several attempts to reform the energy giant CEB failed due to the fire breathing politicians who disrupted every move brought in by successive governments and today the power cut is imminent while we also incur a heavy import oil bill.

We understand that certain state utilities cannot be privatized, but that does not mean doing nothing to adjust for the changing environment.

This is the sad plight of the state enterprises that swallow the tax payer's hard earned money. Some years ago the then government rightly set up a Strategic Enterprise Management Authority (SEMA) to restructure and put these loss making institutions into the path of recovery. What has happened?

Another sad story is the much talked financial irregularities at the Inland Revenue office where billions of rupees are reported to have been robbed. Given these wide holes in the bucket it’s no wonder the state transfers all the burdens on the suffering public. It is the responsibility of the government and perhaps the Central Bank Governor (though not necessarily his statutory duty) who on and off tells how well we are doing to come up with proper mechanisms to minimize losses to the state, let's take some tough decisions and show the door for those who call for trade union action each time some remedial action is proposed.

Dr N. M. Perera a pioneer of the socialist movement is still remembered for the tough stand he took as the minister of finance in not giving in to trade unionists that resulted in a record strike in the banking sector.

We believe the COL committee should concentrate seriously on manageable losses affecting the government revenue as tinkering with import tariffs is not a long term measure. Subsidies to the needy cannot be ignored where income disparities are wide. The disproportionate cabinet structure and its costs is another major issue.