Increase salaries, Ranil requests govt.
Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe today requested the government to increase salaries if it is unable to reduce a fuel price that was jacked up recently.
Mr. Wickremesinghe who made a special statement in Parliament today said the government has two alternatives to provide some relief to the people who had been hit by the surging fuel prices. One option he said is to increase salaries and the other is to revise the fuel prices.
“All sections of society except the rulers are bearing the brunt on the fuel price increase,” he said pointing out that fishermen,
farmers and private vehicle owners are hit by this crisis.
Painting a grim picture on the country’s future, he said the increase in the prices of other essential items such as gas is inevitable.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said the government had failed to come up with a valid reason to justify the price increase. He said different ministers had come out with different reason for the price hike from time to time.
He charged that government institutions such as the CPC are used by the rulers as a means to fill their pockets. Quoting Minister Sarath Amunugama who had said the CPC is a monster that is eating up the economy, the opposition leader said this monster had been created by this government alone.
He made this point by recalling that the CPC was a profit making venture during the UNP regime.
Mr. Wickremesinghe who referred to the subsidy schemes that have been introduced by the government said these schemes are not practical. He also questioned as to why individual vehicle owners had not been given a subsidy.
He charged that the crisis created by the government had ended up with the killing of an innocent fisherman.
Courtesy: DM Online
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Mr.Ranil Wickramasinghe,
Remember the time when the government servants demanded an increase of just Rs. Ten only to set off against the high cost of living during the time when you were in the Cabinet? How many were killed and how many were diasmissed from service by you during that stuggle?Do you want a repetition by this govt.also?
Yep, Increase with the support money you get from westerns…? Or selling the bracelet & chains in your safe box..?
The solution to economic problems is not as simple as increasing salaries. To an employer, a salary is a cost. He will then increase his price to maintain his profit levels. This is called the wage-price spiral. It will lead to inflation. (yet higher prices which means the previous salary increase becomes meaningless).
Solutions lie in cutting excessive spending on unnecessary projects that only boost the ego of a few people and instead directing that money into production, like more incentives for farmers and other producers of commodities.
More could be spent on rural hospitals to relieve the suffering of ordinary people where they can hope for a decent healthcare system while reducing exploitation by unscrupulous con-men; funding for rural schools where children get a decent education and produce intelligent and productive workers for the nation while making tuition-gurus redundant; public utilities which will make life more sustainable for the population, with air-conditioned buses in warm areas etc, and reducing polluting three wheelers etc.
Excessive spending on bureaucrats and redundant political appointees suck the blood of the nation. Instead they should be put to work, where only productive outcomes will earn them their salaries (Like sales reps get their commission based on sales volume). Then we do not need excuses like world market price rises etc to cover our own inadequacies and incompetence.