Sri Lanka’s employed persons numbering over 8.38 million are facing economic hardships and grappling to make ends meet as the cost of living has gone up sky high, former State Minister of Finance and SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne claimed.
He said that according to the Census and Statistic report of year 2022, a family of five persons needs at least Rs 62,220 per month to escape poverty and 70% of those engaged in employment are receiving the salary of less than Rs 62,000.
The gravity economic crisis exacerbates to such propotions making even the employed persons of the middle class to suffer without money to provide basic needs to lead a decent life , he pointedout. . .
Addressing a media conference in Colombo on Wednesday 07 the MP questioned whether it was right for the government to argue that the UNICEF report on Sri Lanka’s malnutrition cannot be accepted, despite the fact that the government’s official report on poverty has demonstrated that the situation has exacerbated.
Also, the World Food Program reported that about 30% of the country’s population are affected by food shortages and need relief for that, and they have launched a program to supply food to Sri Lanka with international support.
Further, Sri Lanka, which was known as a middle-income country with a per capita income exceeding $4000 in 2019, has now become a low-income country with a per capita income of $3850, which reflects the severity of the crisis.
Sri Lanka, which used to have a high percentage of literacy rate, after the SLPP government came in to power, has become the poorest country in Asia, because malnutrition causes, children with low intelligence to be born.
“Shouldn’t this government be ashamed of saying that they would give Rs 2500 to pregnant mothers through interim budget after having stopped the 20,000 rupees nutritional bag given to pregnant mothers by the good governance government” declared MrWickramaratne
Explaining the current situation with regard to good governance he said that there is no end to corruption and fraud under this government.
The stake holders of the government were fattening up with garlic, sugar and coconut oil scams.The country lost 7.6 million dollars under the guise of importing organic fertilizers.
Banks operate according to the conditions included in the letter of credit by the importer, whengoods are imported.Before proving the quality of the fertilizer, the bank had to pay the exporter as per the conditions contained in the letter of credit.
So far, the government has not investigated those responsible for entering such wrong conditions to the Letter of Credit opened to import fertilizer from China.
Because of this, the country not only lost money but also damages caused to its long-term friendship with China.
The government is silent on the compensation that should have been received from the ship Express Pearl, which was destroyed by fire in the sea, and there is no talk about it.
Mr. Eran Wickramaratne emphasized that the government should respond to these allegations and explain as to why those responsible for the country’s theft and fraud.
