New COL index items not released to the public

The Department of Census and Statistics is only releasing the groups and subclasses of the new Colombo Consumer Price Index, the CCPI(N), much to the chagrin of JVP Parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti.

The MP, in parliament this week, charged that the specific items in the basket of goods have not been published and made public. The Director of Industrial and Construction Statistics and Prices at the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) D.C.A. Gunawardena told The Sunday Times that the DCS only releases the groups and subclasses in the CCPI(N) to the public without giving the detailed item list which falls under each subclass. He said this was done in order to prevent the media and others from distorting the information or using it to misrepresent certain facts.

Economists and experts have also raised concerns on the CCPI(N) and the soaring inflation level which for the first time in Sri Lanka's post-independence era, has been in double digits for the last eighteen months.

Several factors have been attributed to the high inflation, most notably the rapid increase in public expenditure over the past three to four years. Principal researcher at the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, said he believes that in addition to the increased spending, there is an increased reliance on domestic borrowing which increases public debt and leads to printing money. The increased reliance on indirect taxes is another contributing factor to the rising inflation. "When the government imposes indirect taxes like VAT, excise duty and economic service charge (ESC), businesses will pass that onto the customers and it will increase the price of goods and services they sell," Sarvananthan said.

Gunawardena said the CCPI will be in use for another six months in order to give the wages board, relevant employers' federations and trade union organizations time to adjust their existing collective agreement to the new index.

He also explained that the CCPI, created in 1952 was primarily used for salary escalation and negotiations as opposed to tracking the movement of the prices in goods and services.