Rising prices a heavy burden
By Nalaka Nonis
All attempts by the government to bring down the cost of living and provide relief for the people have failed.

Price of gas and various food items have risen. Electricity, water, and transport charges have gone up drastically while the Bakery Owners' Association would within the fortnight review the current price of bread.

The fast increasing gas prices has specially troubled most people. Since this government came into power Shell Gas Lanka and Laugfs Gas Lanka have both increased their prices by leaps and bounds.

The shell Gas Lanka which sold a domestic gas cylinder at Rs. 509 in December is now selling it at Rs. 567 while Laugfs Gas Lanka has increased the price of its gas cylinder from Rs. 409 to Rs. 515.

Compared to last year the electricity charges have nearly doubled and water meter charges have risen by 25 percent. While the price of vegetables have also increased the price of coconut sold at 12 rupees some time ago is now sold at prices ranging from Rs. 18 to Rs. 20.

The price increases in essential items like fuel and gas has had a ripple effect on school and office transport services, food packets and other services.

A meal packet sold at Rs.30 two weeks ago is now priced at Rs. 35 at most outlets in Colombo. Some vehicles transporting school children have increased their charges by 100 rupees with several garages too raising prices.

According to the Weekly Food Commodities Bulletin released by the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian and Training Institute, the prices of most foods such as rice, meat, vegetables, fresh and dried fish, dried chillies and prices of both large and small coconuts have gone up this year.

A kilo of Samba rice sold at Rs. 32.62 last year has now increased to Rs. 38.35. Current prices of all meat products have increased by 11 percent compared to last year. Also the prices of fresh and dry fish have gone up by about 10 and 7 percent respectively when compared with the previous year.

The price of rice, even in the so called rice bowl of Sri Lanka, have recently risen.

The price bulletin released by the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute last Friday shows how the price of rice have increased within a week.

Price of a kilo of Samba rice in Polonnaruwa has gone up from Rs. 35 to Rs. 37.50 and Nadu rice from Rs. 26 to Rs. 27 The price of a kilo samba in Anuradhapura has increased from Rs. 34 to Rs. 35 and Nadu from Rs. 27 Rs. 31 and in Ampara the price of a kilo of Samba has moved from Rs. 37 Rs. to 39 and Nadu from Rs. 26 to Rs. 27.

However there is a reduction in the prices of medicine by about five percent compared with last year. But with the value of a rupee dropping so fast there is a real problem of how to maintain prices at the current levels, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceuticals Industries told The Sunday Times.

Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake claimed there was no price increase in essential items in comparison to last year. "Thus the cost of living for people cannot be as high as the year 2001", the minister said.

He added that prices milk food, flour, medicine and other essential items have declined in comparison to the last year and only prices of luxury items have gone up.
The Minister also said that he had decided to import coconut from India despite objections of some ministers in order to protect the consumers from black marketeers who sell them at high prices.

Mr. K.H.J Wijedasa, the chairman of the cabinet appointed Sub-Committee to make recommendations to bring down the cost of living said that certain recommendations have been made to bring down the rising cost of living.

Among these was the decision to remove custom duty on dried and canned fish by 10 percent, to remove custom surcharge by 20 percent, and the custom surcharge on dhal (lentils) by 20 percent, the custom surcharge of five rupees per kilo on coconut oil and edible oil and to remove 25 percent custom duty on Copra imports, he said.
People who spoke to The Sunday Times shared their thoughts as to how badly they were affected by the consistently increasing cost of living.

P. Mahinda (36) a toy seller in Colombo and a father of two children said that he is now in a situation where he uses his daily income only to purchase few very essential items. He said the sudden increase in the gas price and the electricity charges has put the family in difficulty.

Surajdeen(57) a farmer from Nawalapitiya said that his whole family has been extremely affected by the ever increasing cost of living. "Earlier monthly electricity charge was about Rs. 100 but now gone up to Rs. 200 and moreover my Samurdhi entitlement has been cut down, so how can I make a living", he asked.

Gas attack on consumers after fresh deal with CPC
By Tania Fernando
While gas companies and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation exchange fire over gas prices and agreements, the consumer who pays the final price has little or no protection, continues to see the price of gas soaring with all its consequences.

In the latest blow to the consumers, the agreement signed between the CPC and Lanka Auto Gas Ltd (Laugfs Gas) has now been amended resulting in the corporation losing the authority it had to control Laugfs' prices, a CPC official told The Sunday Times.

According to the agreement signed last year, Laugfs was to sell domestic gas at Rs. 100 lower than Shell gas. However, it did so for several months and in the process sold hundreds, if not thousands, of gas cylinders also.

But from last month, the clause giving CPC some price control has been waived allowing Laugfs to raise the price of a domestic cylinder of gas to as much as Rs. 515 from last week.

Laugfs Managing Director Tilak de Silva, claimed they were compelled to raise their price from Rs. 396 to Rs. 515 because of a steep increase in world market prices.

Fair Trading Commission Chairman A. V. S. Indraratne said the Commission had no power to control prices but he hoped that the FTC would have more powers after the new Consumer Affairs Authority law was implemented next year.

Failed attempt to make good
Police have written to the British High Commission in Colombo seeking further information on the man who made a fraudulent claim on a British Insurance Company, after having faked his own death.

DIG Ananda Jayasekera said that they had requested for assistance from the British High Commission, as to whether the British passport holder, Udayakantha Jayathilake, had made the claim from an Insurance Company in London.

The DIG said the suspect's brother had written to the High Commission informing them that Udayakantha had died under tragic circumstances.

Mr. Jayasekera said that although three suspects had been arrested and later released on bail, a fourth is still evading the police.

The 31-year old Udayakantha's ring was found at the site of the burnt car, he said.

Udayakantha Jayathilake who arrived in Sri Lanka from Britain staged his own death by allegedly setting a car on fire with a body inside. However, forensic tests, revealed the body to be that of a female.

After having secretly watched the family home for a while, the Police arrested Udayakantha and his accomplices. They were released on bail last week.

The story ended in tragedy when his mother who visited the courts died of shock, having seen her son, whom she believed to be dead since June, was very much alive. - TF

Insurance scam of yesteryear
Responding to our last week's story of a man allegedly staging his own death, a Sunday Times reader sent us this news report which appeared in the Daily News of June 1993.

The CID has sought Interpol assistance to nab a Lankan who had become a millionaire through various fraudulent deals here and abroad and later tried to evade arrest by trying to make the law enforcement authorities believe that he was dead.

Investigations revealed that the suspect hailing from Dodanduwa and known as "Silva Ariyaratne" and other aliases is alive.

He emigrated to the United States for employment and soon quit his job and started purchasing many old buildings and obtaining insurance cover for them. Later he had inveigled the insurance companies into paying him huge sums of compensation by surreptitiously setting fire to the buildings and claiming fire insurance. When his actions aroused suspicion and the police noose was closing in he had slipped back to Sri Lanka.

To hoodwink Interpol who were after him, he had staged several dramas to give the impression he was dead.

Investigations revealed he had once left some of his clothes in the Hambantota beach with a suicide note to show that he had committed suicide by jumping into the sea.

Subsequently it was found that he was engaged in various other rackets under the assumed name "Ariyaratne". When police intensified their search for him the suspect had exhumed a body from a Matara cemetery and set it ablaze on a tyre pyre leaving a forged identity card and other traces behind to prove that he was dead.

However, a post mortem conducted by a Ruhuna University don proved that it was a body of a woman.

CID has questioned a former MP of the South, a bhikku, a Customs officer and watchers attached to several cemeteries in Matara with a view to apprehending the suspect who is still at large.

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