Budget proposals, gangsters and unfulfilled promises

26 February 2025 12:10 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 9 Bookmark

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The month of February 2025 has been most eventful. One of the most anticipated events was the first budget to be proposed by our first-ever leftist government not in coalition with other political parties. With its overwhelming majority in parliament, there is little doubt the budget would be passed.

What is important however is not merely whether the government is able to pass its own budget or whether it has brought down the cost of living; the most important aspect of any country’s budget is whether it can realistically balance the budget.

One of the main attempts to balance the budget rests on attempts to raise income based on anticipated revenue from heavy taxation via the import of vehicles. This however is highly speculative and is bound to fail if the demand for over-priced vehicles fails to attract customers.

According to ‘EconomyNext’ Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha has said that taxes on vehicles may be cut if the demand is lower than expected. Does this mean we will fail to achieve revenue targets set by the IMF -a precondition to receive the next tranche of IMF funding? Could it also result in the country once again losing its credit worthiness?

It was in the immediate aftermath of the budget, the country witnessed a murder in the Magistrate’s Court where a notorious underworld figure was gunned down and killed in the presence of the Magistrate. Even though police were able to secure the Magistrate, the killer walked/ran out of court unhindered. His alleged accomplice -a female, also like the killer, disguised as a lawyer escaped and is still at large.

This paper reported at least 11 killings, including a six-year-old girl, 9-year-old boy and notorious underworld figure ‘Ganemulla Sanjeewa’ in 2025. According to the police, at least 14 shooting incidents have been reported across the country so far this year, believed to be the work of underworld gangs.

The number of killings and shootings have diverted attention away from the budget. Politicians are more worried in increasing their personal protection -the public be damned.

The sudden rise in crime has also diverted our government’s attention away from the ongoing Israeli massacre in Palestine. Since October 2023 in Gaza alone, at least 47,000 Palestinians have been directly killed by Israeli aggression including 18,000 children. Some 111,000 people have been injured.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly a quarter of the injured -an estimated 22,500 people, have life-altering injuries that require but are not receiving rehabilitation. The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, (UNRWA) reports every day that 10 children lose one or both legs. Operations and amputations are conducted with little or no anaesthesia due to Israel’s blockade.

Before our present government assumed power, it held many demonstrations against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and the atrocities it continues to commit on Palestinian civilians. Probably because of its preoccupation with the rising crime rate in Lanka itself, neither the present NPP government nor any of its international branches which earlier protested, has broached the issue after winning the polls in Lanka.
Sadly since assuming power the NPP government seems to have lost its bearings on the Palestinian issue.
The recent killing spree in Lanka also brings to mind the spate of killings in the not so distant past. On February 16, 1988, ever-popular film-idol cum politician -Vijaya Kumaratunga was gunned down. Two years later an up and coming actor cum journalist Richard de Zoysa was horribly tortured and killed on 18 February 1990.
We have traced previously in these columns, how the power of the underworld was linked to the unbridled power given to the then government of 1977, and the introduction of the open economic policies by that regime and the political patronage extended to underworld figures by the governing party.

Today’s killings and the rise in conflicts between drug lords is an inheritance the present government has received from past rulers of this country. Government needs to urgently address the problem of growing poverty, skyrocketing cost of living and shortages of medicinal drugs in government hospitals.

These were problems the newly elected government promised to solve. In March the government will complete six months in power. But to the masses, the promises still remain a distant dream.