By : A.A.M.Nizam – MATARA

When in the opposition the ruffians who self-proclaimed as great economists of the UNP cabal and the western puppet Ranil Wickremasinghe blamed that the former President Mahinda Rjapakse’s government was ruining the economy of the country, pawning the country to China and found China as a ghost devouring every development project.  On the behest of anti Chinese elements they implied that that it is only the western imperialists and the hegemonic India that could save our country from Chinese domination.

They encouraged the western imperialists and the hegemonic India to launch a conspiracy with the tiger terrorist diaspora, Dollar voracious NGO vultures, the Norway sponsored Bodu Bala Sena outfit and the bandit queen Chandrika with a commode face to topple the populist government adorned by the majority community of the country.

They blamed the previous government of gross malpractices and misappropriation of funds.  Immediately after coming to power they launched a series of enquiries against the leaders of the former government and up to now this is being carried out (for almost one and half years), and said 18 Billion U.S.Dollars are hidden in foreign banks, dug a swimming pool and bulldozed a land in Medamulana saying that gold belonging to Rajapaksa family had been hidden in those premises and failed to prove any of these baseless allegations.  The biggest joker of this country Ranil Wickremasinghe who is the most unfit person to be a Prime Minister of a country due to his clownish, stupid and shameless behavior in Parliament said responding to a questionin the Parliament two days ago that the truth of hidden funds will be revealed within the next three months.  What a buffoon this stupid guy is?

In order to please their western puppeteers the government of Eunuch Sirisena and Buffoon Ranil stalled all development projects being carried out with Chinese assistance such as the Port City Project, Lotus Tower Project, Matara Hambantota Expressway Project, Southern Railway Expansion Project to name a few despite the fact that it is China that has assisted Sri Lanka since 1950s without any strings attached and it is thanks to China that there are several national monuments in Sri Lanka.

What they got for genuflecting before the western imperialists was just verbal appreciations for returning to the western fold and the Eunuch Sirisena recently visiting Germany claimed to have achieved a great success by getting an offer of US$ 20 Million assistance from that country.  This disgraceful stupid Eunuch seems to be suffering from a chronic amnesia and has forgotten that during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government Sri Lanka gave our neighbor Maldives US$ 10 Million as development assistance, US$ 10 Million assistance for educational development in Palestine and further assistance to several other African countries. At that time Sri Lanka was a donor nation and not a begging nation, and Sri Lankans were able to be proud of this achievement as they used to be proud of militarily vanquishing the world’s ruthless terrorist gang from the soil of this country.

It has now become a quandary for all Sri Lankans to find out who is the Finance Minister of this country and whether there is such a one.  The nominal finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presented the budget for the year 2016 promising everything under the heaven but the people have received nothing so far.  Four months have passed without the promised salary increase.  Prices of essential items are skyrocketing, unemployment remaining at unprecedented levels, and people are incapable of having at least two meals a day, let alone the traditional three meals a day, but the crime rate increasing,

The budget presented with much fanfare and publicity was amended by the President and the Prime Minister several times and no one knows now what still remains intact from the original budget proposals.  Despite this fact the Prime Minister boasting to be an economic expert presented on 5^th November an economic plan saying that by which plan Sri Lanka is going to be one of the strongest Asian Economies by 2023 when it celebrates the 75th anniversary of independence. No one knows now what happened to this so-called plan. Presenting this so-called plan he said that the generation of one million jobs, increasing the income, improving the rural economy, giving property rights to rural people, estate workers and public servants were among the mid-term goals of the government. These promises seem to be similar to his earlier promises of gold chains and bracelets to youth and attiring denim trousers to farmers.

After the so-called economic plan he held several Economic Forums and even went with much pride to Davos and failed to achieve any concrete results. The French News Agency reported recently that although Sri Lanka achieved an economic growth of 8% in 2009  (during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime) it has drastically fallen to 4.8% in the 3^rd Quarter of 2015 due to the economic mismanagement of the government, and in order to overcome this situation Sri Lanka has requested a bailout loan of One Billion US$ from the International Monetary Fund and the Fund is reported to have laid down stringent conditions to grant this facility.

Ministers of the government make contradictory statements about the economy of the country.  The nominal Finance Minister (the shameless guy who should resign if he has any self respect and dignity) told the Parliament recently that the country has adequate funds and blamed the opposition for spreading false propaganda.  Meanwhile, Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama claims that the economy of the country has fallen down and no one is coming forward to give loans to Sri Lanka.  He told the Parliament this week that due to increased economic deficit no country is willing to provide loans to Sri Lanka (What happened to the so-called western supporters?)

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe making a special statement in the Parliament this week announced changes to the government’s first budget proposals increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) and removing tax relief given to several sectors. Such action. he said, was essential to ‘maintain GDP at 5.4 per cent and the economic growth rate at 6 per cent in 2016.’

He also proposed to withhold proposals with regard to corporate taxes and non-corporate taxes for one year and to continue the rates proposed in the budget 2015 for those two taxes. He perhaps reluctantly admitted that there has been a growth in private capital in the country during the last decade (during Mahinda Rajapaksa government) He said that as a result the prices of lands and shares in the stock market increased because there was no levying of the Capital Gain Taxes and proposed to impose the capital gain tax again, to amend the two rates of Value Added Taxes as 8 percent and 12.5 percent proposed in the 2016 budget and maintain a single rate of 15 percent.  These are conditions that have been stipulated by the IMF.

Economic experts point out that the country is in the throes of a severe (BoP) crisis as the current foreign exchange reserves are inadequate to meet the impending debt servicing costs. They point out .that the BoP difficulties are due to several factors including the large trade deficit of about Eight Billion US$ caused by the large fiscal deficits that increased imports, the fall in exports owing to global conditions, and a flight in capital owing to domestic and international reasons. They also state that the growth in workers’ remittances has also slowed down owing to the falling international oil prices.

The shameless nominal Finance Minister failed to be present in Parliament when the Prime Minister announced these tax increases and withdrawal of tax concessions granted by his 2016 Budget. All these acts and the current unrest in the agriculture sector points out that the people of Sri Lanka will have a bleak and a dark New Year this April and many will not be able to celebrate the New Year gaily on a national scale. The time has dawned now for all the people to get together and send this inept weda beri” government home soon before it further burdens the populace.

While concluding this article it was announced that the price of a kilo of wheat flour has been increased by Rs. 7.20.  Immediately it reminded me a well admired caption published by the then famous newspaper Aththa” when the price of flour was increased by the then J.R.Jayawardene government saying Than ithin Dot. Dot. Kaa Paan” meaning Than ithin H U Kaa Paan”.  At this going rate will the people of Sri Lanka will have the strength and peace of mind even to do that?