By Sirimantha Rathnasekera
The first step towards overcoming the current crisis was to appoint a government with a mandate from the people, JVP and NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka says.
“There are many signs of the economic crisis. One is the rise in double digit inflation and the other is our inability to service the debt. The rapid loss of jobs, as businesses collapse, is another sign of a deep economic malaise. Because of this, the government does not have rupees to spend and the country does not have dollars to import,” he said in Colombo yesterday.
“In 2023, the country will have to repay Rs 4.2 trillion rupees worth of debt, but the total revenue of the government in 2022 was only two trillion rupees. The massive revenue shortfall has led to economic and social shocks. Sri Lanka has also borrowed heavily and failed to invest the loans productively
“Our tax policy is wrong. Our import policies are wrong, and proper plans were never implemented. A lot of people think this is an economic crisis. However, this is a political crisis. Our political culture is holding the country down. Look at how we implement projects, how we change our tax policies, how we borrow and how we conduct our foreign relations. Our rotten political culture has ensured that all these are conducted to benefit a few people and not the country. We assure you that we will change this rotten political culture,” he said.
Dissanayaka went on to say the production of goods and services in Sri Lanka has to increase and that more workers should be involved in productive sectors. Western Province contributes to 36 percent of the country’s economy while the North Western Province contributes five percent.
“When people are involved in productive sectors, we can expand the economy and ensure more people are better paid. If not, we will just have to expand our welfare. Samurdhi has been operational for almost 30 years and what has been the benefit? The rural poor are not involved in productive sectors and thus remain poor. We need to expand our production and we need to ensure that the benefit of the economy is divided fairly. 10 percent of the top income earners own 38 percent of the country’s wealth. If we look at the top one percent, I am sure they own most of this wealth. The lowest own 1.1% of the wealth. This is not a fair system and this is an inherently unstable system,” he said.
The JVP leader said all human beings deserve adequate money to lead a fulfilling life. There will not be stability if there are large income disparities in a country, he said. A large amount of violence, crime and drug abuse are caused by inequality, he added.
“The economy needs to be equitable. We also need to create a large safety net, not only for the poor but for businesses that get into trouble because of unfavourable external circumstances,” he said.