Bus fares up for masses – fuel allowances up for Ministers !!

In current Sri Lanka, with the so called ‘peoples’ Govt. of Rajapakse Bros., hardly a day passes without the people being rudely awakened by a disastrous news of steep price hikes of their essential commodities, tax or bus fare increases or some carnage of innocent citizens.

In keeping with this Govt.s mania to heap endless burdens on the people while giving itself relief (recent monthly fuel allowance hike of Rs.100,000.00, to Ministers !) it has now decided to raise the basic bus fares to Rs. 6.00 from Rs. 5.00 .with effect from 1st Feb.

Recently, President explained that he did not raise fuel prices of Air lines while burdening the poor masses using Kerosene which went up to unbearable prices, is because he wished the common man also to use economy class MihinAir.

May be the common man will find it cheaper to use Mihinair for travel than the bus under the new revised exorbitant bus fares!

Opinion of the Day: Ways to fix the world’s financial system

The current turbulence in the global economy provides a good opportunity to undertake some necessary reforms. Prime Minister Brown writes that cross-border crisis management arrangements must be shown to be robust and transparency issues must be addressed to counter the underpricing of risk.

It is crucial that countries avoid lurching back towards protectionism and seeing globalization as a threat. Mr. Brown calls for progressive businesses and governments to agree to a manifesto for successful globalization and reiterates his commitment to achieving a fair WTO settlement on trade.

About the Author

The writer is the prime minister.