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By Sandun Jayawardana  

Attention was drawn to the crisis facing the country’s state universities during this week’s Parliament sessions.

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday (19) as it debated several regulations and orders related to finance and tax revenue, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Galle District MP Gayantha Karunathilaka highlighted the “bitter reality” of the situation at state universities. While there should be 12, 992 academic staff at state universities, there were currently only about 8,500. When you take out the number among them on academic leave, the number of university academics teaching at present amounted to about 6,200, he said. “According to unions representing university academics, about 700 among the 6,200 too have left in recent months owing to the unfair tax burden imposed on professionals by the government,” he claimed.  

The situation at the Open University was no different, he added. Though it has a student population of about 18, 000, there are only about 35 permanent academic staff, with the rest being made up of external lecturers. “At present, the number of academic staff at our universities is less than 50% of the number that should be there. This is an extremely serious situation given that state universities are the centres of learning in our country in terms of producing intellectuals and professionals,” said Mr Karunathilaka.

The MP warned that the crisis could have a serious negative effect on the country’s economy and its future.

Though the number of academic staff is dwindling, the annual intake of students at universities has doubled since 2017, with the number increasing from 30, 000 to 59, 000, he pointed out. The government has also not allocated enough expenditure for universities nor improved facilities at universities to meet the needs of the increased student intake, he charged.

While acknowledging the need to retain lecturers at state universities, State Minister of Social Empowerment Anupa Pasqual said academics too must keep in mind that their education from Grade 1 up to Grade 13 and then also at state universities had been funded by taxpayer funds. “I too am a graduate of Colombo University and I acknowledge that my education was funded by taxpayers, both rich and poor. As such, university academics have a responsibility to remain in the country rather than leave due to taxes. We need them to give leadership to rebuild the country.”

He said a vast majority of university academics continued to serve with dedication at state universities despite hardship. State Minister Pasqual added that 75% of tax revenue went towards paying salaries in the state sector, which includes the salaries of university academics. “We are also a welfare state, with a large amount of tax revenue going towards welfare programmes. We need university academics to give leadership to change this system,” said the state minister.

The government’s aim is to rebuild and stabilise the economy and then move towards growth in 2024, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told the House. “We saw that we had negative economic growth in the first two quarters of this year. Our aim with the decisions we take today is to stop us going into negative territory by the fourth quarter of this year and lay the groundwork towards achieving economic growth in 2024. But we need to implement a range of further economic reforms in order to get there. We have a long way to go,” he stressed.

Mr Semasinghe stressed tax management was an essential part of this programme and accepted that this was not currently at a satisfactory level. “This is a complaint among taxpayers and it is a fair complaint. We must digitise our tax revenue collection and widen our tax net. Once we bring in those who must pay taxes and compel those who haven’t paid their taxes properly to do so, we will be able to conduct a fair assessment of the government’s tax revenue.”

The government has been saying that things will get better for 1 ½ years now and is now saying it will get better next year, National People’s Power (NPP) Gampaha District MP Vijitha Herath said. “When you compare how the people lived a year ago with how they are living now, you can say that the pressure on them has increased several fold. Kerosene was Rs. 87 then. It is Rs. 241 now. A kilo of milk powder was Rs. 85, now it is Rs. 210-215. The minimum daily wage for estate workers was set at Rs. 1000 at a time when a kilo of milk powder was Rs. 85. Now, Rs. 1000 is barely sufficient to last a day. The price of petrol, diesel and gas all went up. Electricity tariffs increased threefold and are set to rise again. Employees in both the public and private sectors are extremely frustrated because their income has remained the same while expenses have gone up significantly for everyone, he added.

Such a situation cannot happen if the economy has strengthened as it would mean that people’s income would increase while expenses would decrease, noted Mr Herath. “But the situation now is that both the state’s revenue as well as people’s individual revenue have decreased, while expenses have increased for both,” the MP observed.

The government’s solution for this issue is to impose tax after tax. This has resulted in professionals including doctors, engineers and university academics from leaving the country en masse, said Mr Herath.

Parliament reconvenes on November 7.