Priority check

On Monday, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to suspend a previous decision to import 400 vehicles including Land Cruisers, Prados and double cabs for Government Ministers and officials at a whopping cost of Rs 3.7 billion.  A media release from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the decision had been made to ‘temporarily suspend’ the vehicle imports based on the ‘current situation in the country and the financial situation’. 

Media reports based on leaked Government documents regarding the extravagant purchase noted that the SUVs were being imported for “new Parliamentarians”. Since the President had temporarily suspended duty free permits, the SUVs would be provided to MPs on lease, the reports noted. Naturally, the news reports resulted in widespread public outrage that spilled out on social media for several reasons. 

Sri Lanka is in the grip of a third wave of the deadly coronavirus. Abysmal management of the public health crisis, a failure to build capacity at medical facilities, increase oxygen stocks and secure sufficient vaccines to inoculate the population against COVID-19 has left the country flailing as death counts and infection rates surge.

Sri Lanka’s embassies all over the globe are sending urgent appeals to its expatriate and diaspora communities, begging for funds to purchase medical equipment to treat patients afflicted with the disease. Private citizens have launched funding campaigns on social media to meet the needs of hospitals across the island that are begging for equipment to treat patients in respiratory distress. The Government finally imposed strict travel restrictions – still refusing to call it a “lockdown” – but shortly before it came into effect, the Ministry of Finance slapped special commodity levies on a multitude of essential food items and even life-saving face-masks in the middle of the pandemic. 

There is no denying that a countrywide lockdown was the only way to stop the spread of the virus. For months the Government has shied away from a lockdown, worrying that it would further endanger a perilously positioned economy. But medical opinion was unanimous that a lockdown was the only way to avoid mass infection and an ensuing human tragedy. There is no economy, without people to run it, has been the mantra of health experts, both at home and abroad. The flipside is the toll a lockdown inevitably takes on Sri Lanka’s most vulnerable and impoverished people, particularly labourers and daily wage earners. Without income, vulnerable families will go hungry during the lockdown, and the government decision to impose commodity levies amidst this fight for survival will only exacerbate matters. 

With tens of thousands of people facing hunger and destitution, there was something particularly grotesque about the Government decision to make an exception to the import restrictions in order to take delivery of 400 brand new vehicles for its own use. This was Rs. 3.7 billion the Government could have diverted to the health sector, for the procurement of life-saving medical equipment, Intensive Care Units or vaccines. Instead, while a pandemic is raging and claiming dozens of citizens every day, the Government made its priorities crystal clear, rubbing salt in the wounds of a populace that is already fearful and stretched thin economically. 

Public anger against the move was palpable, and the Government was forced to respond swiftly, by suspending the imports for a later time, perhaps when the public health crisis is less fraught. But there is no question that even if Sri Lanka successfully flattens the COVID-19 curve, the country will still be facing a monumental external debt and foreign reserves challenge. Even the average citizen would understand why Rs. 3.7 billion would be better spent on products and services that would better serve the common good in a cash-strapped, pandemic-hit economy. The question is why the Government’s economic gurus and accounting officers are failing to understand this basic principle. 

Based on current economic trends, the Government, whose unpopularity is already soaring, will soon be forced to impose more austerity measures on the people. For Sri Lankans it will be a bitter pill to swallow, especially if their elected representatives call for belt-tightening from the public while treating themselves to luxury SUVs.