Sri Lanka It's Happening

July 25, 2004

Exactly a month ago a senior minister of the UPFA government apeared on TV and assured the gullible public that Petrol and Diesel prices will not be raised.

Now the price of petrol has seen an overnight rise of more than 15% - the single biggest price hike on record. The UPFA very same minister has appeared again on Television and assured us that only the prices of diesel and other fuels will not follow suite. Not even a hint of an appology. No offers of resignation.

Since the UPFA never does what it says and never says what it does you can rest assured that the price of diesel will jump over the moon as well.

An appologist for the UPFA might say that the price rise was unavoidable due to the increase in the price of crude oil and the weakening of the rupee. Both these didn't happen over night and what previous governments did was to gradually increase prices to avoid jolting the economy. According to the finance minister a large portion of the Petrolium Corporation's revenue is being embezzled.

What this govenment did was to subsidize the price of fuel by ever increasing amounts over the last four months draining what little is left in the treasury. This price rise is the first sure sign that the funds in the treasury have been exausted.

It will not be long before the central bank starts issuing freshly printed bank notes.

Posted by raditha at July 25, 2004 2:43 AM