10th May 1998

• Vesak: Whispering hopes of much wanted peace
• GST: the good, the bad and the unsavoury
• Telecom charges
• None like you Mother
• survival of the fittest?
• Every shining beginning
• Preach the gospel of love
• Should Sinhalese and Tamils go for a divorce?

Vesak: Whispering hopes of much wanted peace

Vesak full moon's soft silvery beams
Star studded serene dusky skies.
Whispering hopes of much wanted peace,
Sprinkling universal Love in Sympathy
The Buddhist way in serenity.

Kaleidoscope magnetic fashion
Exuberant illuminated pandals
Depicting boundless deep compassion
Of the Exalted Fully Enlightened One
The Tathagatha.

Through countless aeons he strove strenuously to gain
Supreme Enlightenment at the foot of the Bodhi tree at sacred Buddhagaya.
An epoch making event in the annals of history
To us suffering mortal beings he discovered Supreme remedy.

Thrice blessed Vesak fullmoon poya
Lord Buddha reached the acme of perfection.
Pinnacle of Wisdom with own inherent powers
Buddhists everywhere commemorate this day in celebration.

2542 years ago the Sage of Sakya clan was born.
He showed humanity The Path to Peace in simple form.
The great awakening, Light of Asia.
May the message of Ahimsa
Prevail on earth with holy radiance
Sprinkling unity, tranquility with unique fragrance.

Sabbe Saththa Bhavanthu Sukithaththa -
May all living beings.
Attain a state of well being.

GST: the good, the bad and the unsavoury

The introduction of GST to replace the TT which existed since 1963, was envisaged in the budgetary proposals of 1988. That proposal took nearly a decade to materialise.

When the proposal for introduction of the GST which is commonly referred to as VAT (Value Added Tax), the acronym used in many countries in the East and the West, it was widely believed that it could have adverse effects on consumers especially when the tax was new. It could run into administrative snags and create hiccups for the government. In the early nineties, a then government MP who was said to have been at the Treasury when the GST (VAT) was being discussed, is known to have quipped "Ona VAT ekak apawa wattanne nethuwa" (Any Vat without sinking us).

In the light of this kind of pessimism and the preliminaries that had to be gone into in detail, with a view to achieve a smooth and healthy transition and a proper implementation, the GST kept on being postponed. But the PA government took the courageous decision to introduce the GST. How prophetic was that politician when we find the problems the GST is running into with consumer complaints of improper implementation and unwarranted price hikes produced by the very law that was expected to be beneficial to consumers vis-a-vis the TT law.

The GST replacing the TT is not expected to bring in additional revenue. In the months to come this will be proved correct. However, it has already produced two unexpected problems which have led to the current confusion forcing the Inland Revenue Department to roll out reams of literature. There is general dissatisfaction over the charging of the GST (at least the manner) on articles of sales and the services rendered. It has illegally increased the profits of traders in general while the consumer is forced to squeeze the bottom of the purse for the extra buck to meet the increased price.

This unsavoury situation should be corrected promptly and effectively to ward off any misgivings and ambiguities. The government and the consumer must be salvaged from a burden that they never bargained for.

As a first step the Revenue officials must be very much in the field monitoring and educating the traders as well as the consumers at least for the next 4-6 months. Normally the Sri Lankan public do not bother about any tax until it begins to bother them. Therefore, an awareness campaign should be launched by the Inland Revenue Department as it is their responsibility to implement the law both in letter and spirit causing little inconvenience to the consumer. The spirit of the law is always maintained by the authority which governs it. If the GST creates harmful side-effects to the consumer, it should be mended or bended. The Sales Tax introduced in the early sixties was promptly withdrawn within days when it proved to create a severe confusion in the market detrimental to the consumers.

When a tax invoice/sales voucher is drafted, the importers, manufacturers, distributors and services must be instructed to first indicate the deduction of the original TT embodied in the price marked for sale of an article and then indicate the GST charged on the balance in which way only a right picture of GST law could emerge.

No delay whatsoever in making the remittance of the GST collected should be excused. The trader should not be found cheating the customer who maintains him and his family or the state which provides protection to his trade. Fraudulent charge of GST on the customer and failure to remit what is charged when the trader "finds" his turnover falling short of Rs. 500,000 per quarter or for any other reason or no reason, must be punished and remedied.

Telecom charges

I wish to make a brief clarification in response to Dr. A.R. Mohamad's letter to the Editor in The Sunday Times of April 26.

Sri Lanka Telecom Limited was placed under a new management in August 1997. As part of that arrangement, the government had decided to allow a 25% increase in SLT's domestic revenues to enable the company to continue to expand the network at a fast pace and to respond to pressures on its international revenues. The law requires the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to make its tariff determinations taking into account government policy and operator requirements, while protecting the interests of the public and the consumers. Given the importance of satisfying the pent up demand for telephone connections, the Commission believes that it has succeeded in protecting the consumer interest while implementing the government policy of giving the company adequate resources to extend the network.

If not for the Commission's intervention, there would not have been a concessionary rate of Rs. 1.10 even for the low users. The Commission is confident that its policy of requiring that concrete improvements in service quality such as the rule for rental rebate after more than 7 days without service, be made along with the implementation of the new tariff structure is in the interest of the subscriber.

The Commission's tariff decision balances these interests. For example, the Commission made the choice to keep the base installation charge unchanged because reducing it this year would have necessitated increasing calling charges to make up for the revenue of more than Rs. 230 million that would have been lost to the Company because of the reduction. Furthermore the Company had not supplied the required cost information to justify a decrease as part of its tariff proposal. According to previously submitted cost data, a new connection costs more than Rs. 13,000 and it is against regulatory policy to permit tariffs that are below cost.

It is evident that Dr. Mohamad has given a lot of thought to telephone tariffs. However, the picture is not complete without an understanding of the need to provide resources for network expansion which is currently proceeding at a pace unprecedented in Sri Lanka's telecommunications history.

None like you Mother

We can only have one Mother,
Patient, kind and true,
No other person in this world,
Will be so true to you.

Many fears you have caused her,
When you were sad or ill,
And may be many sleepless nights,
Though you may have grown still.

Dreaming of a bright future,
She grooms you so well,
Sacrificing and toiling,
To protect you from hell.

The hardships you have caused her
Growing each and every year,
Must never be easily forgotten,
Though she may not be near.

Times will change and a time will come,
To do your duty, to a Mother who has done,
Bear in mind and spare your time,
To care for a Mother who was doing fine.
Cheer and comfort, as done to you,
For efforts will be repaid,
When time comes to you.
Never forget, nor never delay,

To devote for a Mother who can never be replaced,
She may be old and turning grey,
Still remember she is your Mother,
And to a Mother we have to repay.

More Letters to the Editor * Survival of the fittest? * Every shining beginning * Preach the gospel of love * Should Sinhalese and Tamils go for a divorce?

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