CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol Bill & New Entertainment Tax

By Ramani D.Wickramaratne

The Sri Lankan Parliament on 5th July 2006 passed the "Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol "Bill unanimously which is a great achievement for those who championed this cause and succeeded. The JHU must be complimented on championing this cause & gratitude needs to be expressed to the parliamentarians who voted for it. Following this success, another achievement was made and that is introducing a New Entertainment Tax on all imported foreign films and will include commercials and serials aired on television channels and the cinemas. The new Tax Law will impose on imported films & tele-dramas and dubbed into Sinhala & Tamil, a tax of Rs.90,000.00 for a 30 minute segment. Foreign commercials aired on television stations will be taxed Rs.1,000,000.00 while a 30 minute film or drama for broadcasting on television will be charged Rs.75,000.00 according to a news report in "The Hindu." Hats off to the GOSL for implementing these laws even at this late stage before further damage is done to the social fabric of this country.

With relation to tobacco and smoking, there are arguments for an against on the basis that there is no 100% proof to say that lung cancer is caused only through smoking tobacco whether it be active or passive smoking. There is ofcourse reports which state that tobacco contains some 3-4000 odd chemicals which are harmful to the health. Nevertheless, there is a fear in the minds of people. So many who do not smoke actively or passively end up with lung cancer which could also be caused, from diesel/petrol fumes which we see in abundance on the roads from belching vehicles during traffic blocks, or from the numerous insecticides that are sprayed on our vegetables by the farmers. On the other hand, there are so many heavy smokers who live a healthy life and die without lung cancer! However, measures taken in the right direction to curtail the hazards must be lauded.

Alcohol consumption on the other hand, has proven that most crimes in society, physical abuse and dissention in families, suicides are rampant due its excessive use. Power of rational thinking leaves the minds of those who consume liquour in excess which creates highly traumatic experiences for the those near and dear to the culprits- especially the innocent children with an alcoholic parent or parents. Here again, on the assumption that excessive alcoholic consumption causes liver cancer is a subject of numerous discussions because there are numerous cases of patients who die from cirrhosis without having consumed liquor in all their life. Similar to the issue of lung cancer & cigarette smoking, such cases can be taken as exceptions to the rule.

Open the newspapers in any language in Sri Lanka & you will see everyday, atleast 2-3 news items of alcohol related crimes which have been the cause of adult suicides, murders, physical bashing meted out to the wives and children & child suicides because children find it difficult to endure daily quarrelsome situations in their homes every day and also innocent road deaths & accidents caused by reckless drunken driving.

Due to free availability of "moonshine" and the establishment of liquour bars in close proximity to schools, places of religious worship and government institutions, numerous have been the reports of even teachers using their students to go and purchase liquour for the teachers which sets a bad examples to their students, officials in government institutions being found under the influence of liquour most often after lunch. Discipline has been" thrown out of the windows" of institutions due to the irresponsible attitudes of adults who have no time and place for this bad habit! Sri Lanka has set a world record as being the country with the highest rate of alcoholism. From historical records we know that it was the foreign invader who introduced liquour to Sri Lanka to make our people " bad Buddhists" as it is mentioned. After 440 years of colonialism and the ill-effects of what they did to our society, today we see even young teenagers who frequent night clubs & karaoke bars being stone drunk at the dead of night. Worst still, some children become drug addicts due to lack of supervision by their parents who are busy with their own lifestyles & think parental love can be substituted by giving money for children to find their own channels of enjoyment. Their parents are totally indifferent or ignorant of what their young children are upto, when they send their children out in the nights.

On the one hand Sri Lanka has the problem with alcoholism and on the other, an equally detrimental feature in our social lives today, are the cheap low quality imported films, teledramas & commercials which are shown through our TV channels. These are digested very holistically by the locals -both adults and the youth. If one does a survey of what films are shown in the local cinemas, it will be evident that 95% of the films shown are extremely low quality cheap films that will stimulate the sexual desires of those who view such films. There is nothing that one can term and educative or entertaining where the whole family can go and watch together. Most of the films are " adults only" absolutely low quality imported films.

Gone are the days when the Film Corporation or Ministry of Culture had strict criteria of what films or tele-dramas were brought into the country. Gone are the days, when children of school going age were catered to when importing films to be shown in the public cinemas. When we were small, every Sunday was a day when special "Children's Films" were shown in the cinemas & children loved to watch them because they were just pure fun to watch. Film shows on Sundays became family events & children were given that extra attention to make them feel wanted in our society. Souvenirs & sweets would be distributed very lavishly to the audience of children at these Sunday shows. Comedies and musicals were as much entertainment to the children as they were to the adults.

Today, what we see on TV and the cinemas are utterly obscene cheap films with plenty of crimes & belly dancing Indian artists. There are certain TV channels which show these films throughout the day and the uneducated and un-informed public think that these are the only products available! Their standards and demands have deteriorated to such low levels that during the past 30 years the crime rate in Sri Lanka has witnessed a phenomenal increase! Do we term this as " globalization" and if so, is it not better to save one's country and keep away from the "globalization fashion" to save our country? One wonders whether our leaders of past governments did this on purpose to corrupt young minds?

In order to curb moral degeneration of our society, the present GOSL has done the wisest thing possible by imposing heavy tax on imported films, tele-dramas and commercials which are low in quality. Together with the new tax being imposed on these items, it is also high time for the GOSL to appoint a team of high calibre officials to a selection committee which will decide what can or cannot be imported or shown in Sri Lanka. Think this is the least we could expect from our leaders to help train and nurture a healthy & balanced society of the future. Businessmen who only look at their profit levels will no doubt, be unhappy about this newly introduced tax- it really does not matter because we need our leaders, to concentrate more on creating a social environment for a healthy society! We have certainly had enough of perversion so far. Let us hope that the new import tax law includes the import of CDs, DVDs and all other similar products which are brought into this country?

The selectors must definitely be individuals who have the welfare of the country in mind and not the commercial value of the product. Recently there has been much controversy in the media regarding Asoka Handagama's film "Aksharaya" ( Letter of Fire) due to the fact that the officials sitting on the current Public Performance Board even without viewing the films themselves- put their signature in agreement to public showing because they obviously are buddy buddies of Asoka Handagama! Adults need to act with decency and decorum and officials appointed to such important posts must act in a responsible manner.

We need to encourage our own film producers to put out high quality films which carry good moral values rather than the Asoka Handagama type obscene and vulgar films which are not good either for adults or the youth. Combinations of Handagamas and Sannasgalas can destroy our country completely & God knows, that is exactly what they aim at.

If the GOSL continues to remain committed to safeguarding our national interests and wish to take stringent measures to ensure a healthy future generation, then the path they are treading on right now, is" a welcome breath of fresh air" and is moving in the right direction. Let us hope they can continue to implement similar measures and curb the ills so rampant in our society today.

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

DISCLAIMER