The Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that all public employees except the ones in essential services will be informed not to come to work tomorrow (20). He stated that this step will be taken to save fuel in the short term according to the current situation in the country.
Ashok Abeysinghe – “The GCE Ordinary Level examination will begin on Monday, Prime Minister. Those children have to be provided with a system to go to the examination centers by at least leaving the SLTB buses. Because those children are helpless because of this fuel problem.”
Prime Minister – I do not think the problem will be exacerbated by the availability of petrol and diesel by the weekend. We have fuel until mid-June. By then the examination will be over. We will ask employees not to come to work tomorrow other than the essential government services. Because we can save some fuel from there to do this weekend. Then the fuel problem will be solved. That’s why I tell those non-essential employees not to come tomorrow.”
The Prime Minister was responding to a question raised in Parliament today (19).
Kanchana Wijesekera, Minister of Energy has stated that fuel has been not been issued at a lower price to the Members of Parliament at the Narahenpita Police Fuel Station.
The Police Media Division also issued a statement stating that steps have been taken to temporarily release fuel for the vehicles of the Members of Parliament at the request of the Speaker, at current prices.
The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera stated in Parliament today that it is not possible to issue stocks of petrol from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation until this afternoon.
The Minister said that people had been asked not to wait in queues as there was no petrol but people in many parts of the country were still queuing up yesterday to get petrol. He further states that people do not listen to their requests not to wait in queues.
People wait in line for hours, sometimes days, to buy essential items, including petrol, diesel, kerosene, and gas. They are queuing up in the hope that fuel and gas will arrive at any moment.
Instead of taking the necessary steps to resolve the fuel issue, there is no use of a Minister who announces the arrival of fuel at stations or to announce people not to queue for fuel. It is enough for the Petroleum Corporation or the Ministry to have a media spokesperson to carry out that task.
A Minister has been appointed to the Ministry of Power and Energy in a rush as it is an urgent and mandatory task. Therefore, the Minister of Power and Energy should understand that his role is to move away from the role of a media spokesperson who issues announcements and instead provides relief to the people by resolving the fuel crisis.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that it has been decided not to pay the salaries of the cabinet ministers of the new government which will be completed in the future.
Accordingly, they will receive only the average salary of a Member of Parliament.
The Prime Minister also stated that he hopes to reduce the ministerial privileges of the new ministers.
The Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated this addressing the Parliament today (19).
During her official visit to Sri Lanka recently, the Officer-in-Charge for UN Women Asia and the Pacific met with key partners to reaffirm UN Women’s commitment to ensure that women and girls are not left behind amidst recovery from the ongoing economic crisis.
18 May 2022 (Colombo, Sri Lanka): As Sri Lanka experiences an unprecedented economic crisis – including spiraling inflation and a shortage of basic necessities – women are among the most vulnerable to its impacts. This is particularly true of UN Women’s key stakeholder groups including women heads of households, women affected by conflict, and women who lack access to resources, protection, and opportunities for full economic empowerment.
The Officer-in-Charge for UN Women Asia and the Pacific, Sarah Knibbs, met with key partners to advocate for the equitable prioritization of women’s needs and rights in all measures taken to respond to and recover from the current crisis, and for their equal participation in developing and implementing the same.
During her visit, she highlighted that “in line with global analysis, the current economic crisis is very likely to be detrimental to the present status of women and girls, and reverse the limited gains made in relation to their health, wellbeing, rights and opportunities”.
The scarcity of essential food and medicine, along with potential austerity measures resulting from economic recovery processes will have far-reaching consequences for many Sri Lankans, including many women who are already vulnerable to socio-economic shocks, with limited access to resources or social protection. Cuts to social protection schemes will also deprive many women of the meagre allowances available to them, and will have ripple effects on the wellbeing of their children and other household members.
Additionally, while both women and men are affected by job losses during times of crisis, evidence shows that women are often laid off first. For instance, a new UN Women study ‘Gender Disparities and Labour Market Challenges’; shows that between 2019 and 2020, female employment in Sri Lanka declined by nearly 8 percent in the 600 firms that were surveyed, driven mainly by the halving of skilled female employment in the hospitality sector by 47 percent. However, following the COVID-19 lockdowns, male employment in the hospitality sector increased by a considerable 14 percent.
In meetings with key partners, Knibbs highlighted key priorities to ensure a gender-responsive response to and recovery from the crisis.
Firstly, she stressed the need for gender responsive policies, highlighting that “Crises have gender-specific impacts that disproportionately burden women. Investments in gender-responsive research and adopting a transformative approach to designing economic and social policies that promote the realization of women’s rights is a crucial step towards inclusive recovery”.
Secondly, she highlighted the need for women’s equal participation in shaping these efforts.Globally, women’s participation in decision-making and recovery planning has proven effective in ensuring stable long-term recovery from crisis. However, throughout Sri Lanka’s history, women have been largely underrepresented in formal spaces of power.
Recognizing this, Knibbs stated that “in order to ensure that women’s needs are addressed in response and recovery efforts, it is essential that Sri Lankan women are included in all decision-making spheres”.
Thirdly, she highlighted the importance of gender-responsive national planning and budgeting processes, to ensure the needs of the most marginalized and vulnerable are prioritized and contribute to equal opportunities as the country works towards recovery.
Finally, she noted the importance of strengthening data collection and the use of sex-disaggregated data to assess the differential impact of the economic crisis on women and men, and to respond appropriately.
She assured partners that UN Women remains committed to supporting women and girls of Sri Lanka, and that it would strengthen its ongoing work with partners to ensure that Sri Lankan women have increasing income security, access to decent work and economic autonomy. Further, as UN Women works on implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the country, she emphasized the importance of women’s leadership in rebuilding societies during times of crisis.
SriLankan poor people become the poorest of the poor and the middle class people have been pushed into poverty because of the economic impacts of COVID-19. Lockdowns, lay-offs, and an economic recession.
Many formerly middle-class families are now destitute as their fixed income is not sufficient to meet their day to day needs owing to the high cost of living and dependent on aid organisations for their basic needs, an official survey revealed.
The prices of essential food commodities have skyrocketed and most of the middle class and poorest people had to cut down their three meals per day to one or two.
Prof. Steve Hanke, who is the Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University warned that the poor people are crushed by inflation.
“The official inflation rate is 21.5% per year. and the accurate inflation is 132%. So the real inflation rate is 6 times higher than the official inflation rate,” he claimed.
When you have inflation that high it is a complete catastrophe. And not only you have an economic catastrophe associated with the high inflation but you have a real problem because the inflation hits the poor people more than it hits the rich people,” he added
Noting that such a situation ultimately creates a political problem, Professor Steve Hanke warned “Sri Lanka looks like everything is going to come to a stop.
“The poverty rate in Sri Lanka will witness further increase in 2022, as the country’s economic crisis worsens. The World Bank (WB) in its Spring Update on the South Asian region said that the poverty rate in Sri Lanka would increase to 11.7 percent in 2022, compared to 10 percent in 2019.
The World Bank’s April 2022 update of Macro Poverty Outlook for Sri Lanka asserted that the heightened fiscal and external risks as well as the challenging political situation pose significant uncertainty to the economic outlook and the country faces an external financing gap in 2022 and beyond.
“Sri Lanka needs to address the structural sources of its vulnerabilities. This would require reducing fiscal deficits especially through strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation,” the World Bank said.
While fiscal consolidation needs to be accompanied by tighter monetary policy to contain pressures on inflation, the global development lender said the island nation also needs to find feasible options to restore debt sustainability.
The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has issued a stern warning to the government that if any cuts are made to the salaries of health workers, they will resort to severe trade union action without any prior notice after the 25th.
Despite a number of serious problems in the health sector as well as in the country as a whole, the GMOA has not taken any decisive trade union action in the last two and a half years. The GMOA did not join the one – day token strike on April 28 to demand the resignation of the president and government, at least in protest of issues including the price of goods in the country.
Anuruddha Padeniya, the President of the Association, was instrumental in the election of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as President and was one of the main contributors to the Government’s Organic Fertilizer Program.
This time the issue has arisen in connection with a notification issued by the Secretary to the Treasury in the face of the current financial crisis in the country. It states that the sum of the overtime allowances received by public officers in various ways should be calculated from this month so as not to exceed the salary.
The swearing-in of the new cabinet has been postponed until next week, according to internal sources.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on May 12 and a week has passed today. However, only four members of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s party have been sworn in by the cabinet.
Sources say that the swearing-in of the new cabinet has been delayed due to the fact that some politicians who had expressed their desire to join Ranil Wickremesinghe’s party have joined the new cabinet.
Sources further stated that the new cabinet will be sworn in by next week.
The CID is scheduled to record statements from six members of the SLPP today (19) regarding the attack on the Golf Face protest site.
Accordingly, statements are to be obtained from Johnston Fernando, Sanjeewa Edirimanne, CB Ratnayake, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Indika Anuruddha and Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi at the Parliament complex today.
Although the CID had gone to Parliament yesterday and the day before yesterday to obtain statements from them, it has not been done yet.
Ramesh Pathirana, a former minister and former cabinet spokesman, has said that the attack on the peaceful Galle Face Protest on May 09 by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s supporters could have been prevented but IGP CD Wickramaratne has ordered not to do so.
Ramesh Pathirana stated this addressing the Parliament yesterday (18).
It is a serious question as to how CD Wickremaratne will continue to hold the post of IGP despite the existence of such a serious allegation and how the investigation into this incident will be continued under him.
