Good financial discipline kept prices under control: Ravi K

Most of the essential food items are freely available in the market today at considerably lower prices than that of the prices charged when Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over power to the current government on January 9th, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.

Addressing a ceremony organized by Young Professional Association to mark the completion of one year to the good governance administration, Minister Karunanayake said that some groups are claiming illogically that the prices of consumer items have gone up.  However they do not mention that the prices of many other essential items including LP gas, petrol and raw rice have been considerably reduced. The ceremony was held at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute in Colombo 7 this week.  

Minister Karunanayake called those who complain of higher prices to name 10 consumer items; if they are sold at prices more than that of the prices remained in the market during Rajapaksa regime.  Such groups who are clung to a small change in price of certain items and, attempting to exaggerate the situation thereby creating problems in the society, Minister Karunanayake stressed.

Speaking further, the minister said that this government has been navigating through internal economic turbulences after it came to power, and at the same time, was able to bring some relief to the masses during a period of one year in office.  The minister was optimistic that the government will be able to bring more benefits to the masses in the coming years.

Finance minister Karunanayake further said, “Revenue of the government was not sufficient to pay its recurrent expenditure until 2014.  However, as a result of the current government’s finical disciplines, it was able to earn sufficient revenue to pay its recurrent expenditure in 2015.  Earlier, the previous regime borrowed heavily as its revenue was not sufficient to pay the recurrent expenditure.

However, this government did not add more burdens on its public debt. Although, 25 percent of its revenue targets were lost due to various circumstances including certain litigation and external economic turbulences, the government was able to manage its affairs by keeping its revenue on target during 2016.

Due to the financial disciplines mechanism, we have been able to increase the government revenue to 13.9 percent in 2016 from previous 10.4 percent. At the same time, borrowing cost has also been reduced to 5.1 percent in 2016 from previous 6.6 percent,” the minister said.

Although governments are changed from time-to-time, government-to-government contracts cannot be annulled.  However this government was able to talk to the relevant governments and review huge projects such as construction of expressways and highways and reduce the cost of such projects by 21 percent. This has apparently saved a large amount of money, Finance Minister Karunanayake said.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva and MP Harshana Rajakaruna were also present at the event.