Friday 3rd November, 2023

The latest VAT hike has come as a double whammy for the public, who are reeling from extremely high taxes and tariffs, not to mention the soaring cost of living. The SLPP politicians seem to be deriving some perverse pleasure from the predicament of the people, who rose against them and took them down a notch or two, last year.

SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa has sought to shift the blame for the unprecedented increases in taxes tariffs, fuel prices, etc., to the public; tax cuts and state interventions to keep the petroleum prices low during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government had come in for severe criticism in some quarters, and now they have been increased, he has said. He seems to think the people have got their comeuppance.

Let the SLPP politicians be told that there have been exponential increases in the prices of all goods and services not because the people were critical of the politically-motivated tax cuts and fuel price reductions during the Gotabaya presidency. The public is in the current predicament because the Rajapaksas and their cronies mismanaged the economy and bankrupted the country.

Unless the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration had slashed taxes for political reasons, causing a sharp drop in state revenue, and then resorted to excessive money printing, which led to an increase in inflation and the devaluation of the rupee against all major foreign currencies, the economy could have been prevented from going into a tailspin. Gotabaya’s disastrous experiment with organic farming, and the resultant decrease in the national agricultural output also aggravated the situation.

Neither Namal nor any other member of the wealthy political families has been affected by the current economic crisis. Politicians may trade various allegations against one another liberally at the drop of a hat, but never do they demand to know how come the children of the political leaders with humble origins are living the life of Riley without any discernible sources of income. Even the children of some Marxist leaders who claim to be dependent on others for survival are studying in the capitalist West!

Most politicians, save a few, were out at the elbow when they took to politics, years ago. During elections, they themselves advertise their modest beginnings to endear themselves to the ordinary voters while claiming to have amassed no ill-gotten wealth, but they and their children are living in clover while the educated youth are either struggling to find jobs or paying unconscionably high taxes.

Doctors and university teachers are on the warpath, demanding that the government bring taxes down to affordable levels. Professionals employed in the private sector, too, have to part with sizeable chunks of their hard-earned salaries as taxes. Naturally, the flight of human capital is on the rise, and the youth are rebelling against the system.

The political leaders and their children, living high on the hog, had better stop trying to dupe the public, especially the youth, and provoking them in the process. Public resentment is welling up, and the possibility of it finding expression in another popular uprising cannot be ruled out. The least that the likes of Namal could do to prevent such an eventuality is to exercise control over their restless tongues.