Private Bus Owners Association President Gamunu Wijerathne charged that the Government had done little or nothing to restore the struggling transport sector to its former glory.

“Nothing has been done in the previous budgets and we don’t expect anything from the upcoming budget either. The government claims that it has allocated money for the National Transport Commission. We don’t know where this money has gone. We can’t do anything but expect the gradual decline of the industry,” he said.

Colombo Traders Association President Palaniyandi Sundaram said the Government had increased the duty on the imported food items to help local farmers to sell their products. But this had not helped the consumer because the prices of local products were also high. On the other hand, traders are suffering sales drop because of the high cost of imports.

Colombo Housewives Association Secretary Diyana Rizvi said housewives were complaining about food prices and were expecting a price reduction in at least basic food items such as dhal, rice and milk. Now that the war had come to an end, the Government could afford to spend the money spent on defence to provide relief to the people, she said.

Estate Workers Association President F. Ramanadan said they had submitted a proposal to the government seeking relief for the daily paid estate workers especially when there was no work in estates due to droughts, floods or other natural disasters.

Sri Lanka Bakery Owners Association President N. K. Jayawardena said: “We are also citizens of this country just like the farmers. With the increase of flour and other bakery items, the industry is struggling to survive. We hope the government would remove the National Building Tax on bread sales and the VAT on other bakery products.”

S. Thavarthnam, President of the Northern Province Fisherman Alliance, said the fishermen of the Northern Province suffered heavily during the war but very little was done to lift their living standards in the post-war budgets. The Government should provide the northern fishermen some relief at least in the upcoming budget.

The most recent hikes were Friday’s increase in the price of wheat flour. It came a week after chicken and cement were also increased. The price of chicken was increased by 30 rupees and a kilo of chicken now costs around 380 rupees in retail markets. After the increase in cement prices in May this year, there was another increase this month with the price of a 50 kg bag of cement being increased by 68 to 85 rupees. The current retail price of a 50 kg bag of cement is around 925 rupees.

With the increase of import duty in June, the prices of a number of consumer goods also went up making it harder for consumers to make the ends meet. Sugar went by by 10 rupees a kilo, potato by 30 rupees a kilo, Garlic by 40 rupees a kilo, canned fish by 85 rupees a kilo, Maldive fish by 250 rupees a kilo and dried fish by 100 rupees a kilo.

For garlic, sugar and dhal, the increase in the import duty was the second this year following the increase in January.

In May there was an increase in the prices of LP gas and milk powder.With effect from May 04, the price of a 12.5 kg domestic LP gas cylinder, both Litro and Laugfs, was increased by 350 rupees. The price of a 400 g packet of imported milk powder went up by 61 rupees and the price of a 1 kg packet of milk powder was increased by 161 rupees.

In April, the prices of wheat flour increased by Rs. 8.50 and the new price was Rs. 97.50 a kilo.
Fuel and bread prices increased in February. The price of a liter of diesel and petrol was increased by Rs. 31 and Rs. 12 respectively and the bread prices went up by 5 rupees.

As a result of fuel price hikes, the prices of bus fares were also increased. The National Water Supply and Drainage Board increased water tariffs by 20% per unit and with the addition of the Fuel Adjustment Charge (FAC) by the Ceylon Electricity board, electricity rates also went up.

The common perception among Colombo residents is that the cost of living is only an urban problem and it is not a main issue for the rural people. The Sunday Times interviews a cross section of the people in the Puttalam district to find out their views on the budget.

S. P. Piyadasa (75), a coconut cultivator in Anamaduwa, said that as a result of the drought in the Puttalam area, cultivators are facing many hardships.

“More than 300,000 coconut trees were destroyed and the government had promised to give a coconut tree to each of those destroyed but what can an old man like me do with that? What we ask the government is relief in the upcoming budget,” he said.

Sixty-four-year-old J.A. Somapala, a farmer in Puttalam, said: “We are not against infrastructure development but people shouldn’t be burdened by these activities. What we request the government is relief. If the fuel prices are brought down, then the prices of many items will come down.”D. Sanmugaraja holds a similar view. “The cost of essential products these days are very high. We did not face such difficulty even when the war was on. The government should work for the sake of the people and it should provide relief to the public soon.”

The economic hardships have affected even babies in the womb. “The Government said pregnant mothers would be given special food but this remains a dream. What we ask the Government is to implement this programme and eliminate corruption in the system. Children from age 1 to 5 should be given triposha as they were promised because this is an essential requirement for children,” said an expectant mother.