Govt wreaking havoc on COVID-19 & economic management must take meaningful steps: Eran

With the COVID-19 epidemic and mismanagement of the economy, the country is now facing a trinity of crises which cannot be cured by this government due to its intrinsic nature of mismanagement, said Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Eran Wickramaratne.

Addressing a press conference held at the Opposition Leader's Office in Colombo today, the Member of Parliament said that the country has been pushed back to the pre-1977 era of shortages of goods and queues and people are in a tragic situation of collecting food from the bins of supermarkets.

Speaking further Mr. Wickramaratne said that the people have been engulfed in the bottom of poverty today as a result of the crises in the country due to the inability of the government, but the government has introduced a system that provides undue advantage to the close friends of the government.

“The economy cannot be managed on lies and myths. If the Covid vaccine had been ordered on time, there would have been an opportunity to vaccinate all the people at a lower price,” he said. 

Further, there was an opportunity to save the country from the situation where most people die daily. He also stressed that Sri Lanka is the only country where schools have been closed for such a long period due to corona.

Mr Wickramaratne also said that the government has done nothing meaningful for the welfare of the people amidst covid hardships but it has used even the state of emergency to allow its crony businessmen to make more profit.

The tax on one kilo of sugar which was Rs. 35 during the period of good governance,was increased to 50 rupees by this government, saying it would increase domestic production.

Proving that much hyped manufacturing economy and the local agrarian economy are just gimmick and false govt. abruptly reduced the tax on sugar to 25 cents, giving the opportunity to their crony sugar importers, to date, to deprive the government of its tax revenue up to Rs. 35 billion and the corrupt will benefit from these dealings.

After reducing the sugar tax to 25 cents, sugar required for one year’s need was imported to be sold at the controlled price of Rs. 85/ but has made use of the provisions of the newly declared state of emergency to deceive the consumers by increasing the maximum retail price from Rs 85/ to Rs 122/ per KG under the guise of bringing down the prices.

Despite the corona and the economic crisis, the government is now pursuing a wrong foreign policy that has triggered a triple crisis in the country which could cause severe damage to the country's export economy in the future

Drawing attention to the forthcoming Geneva HR Council session this month he said that the resolution passed by the Geneva Human Rights Council in March this year on human rights violations in Sri Lanka, especially since the current government came to power, would be subject to discussion again this month. The local mechanism set up by the Yahapalana government to investigate alleged human rights abuses during the Thirty Years War had gained international recognition.