{"id":56790,"date":"2016-07-21T14:58:05","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T21:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=56790"},"modified":"2016-07-21T14:58:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T21:58:05","slug":"slfps-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/21\/slfps-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"SLFP\u2019s dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITORIAL\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

July 20, 2016, 8:53 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

The SLFP finds itself in a peculiar position. Politically speaking, it is neither fish nor fowl. It is part of the incumbent government and at the same time it tries to act as an Opposition party. One may call this political cross-dressing, which, however, is not of recent origin. Individual politicians have practised it since Independence and the last government was full of them. But, it was only after the 2015 general election that a mainstream party adopted it as a policy. This can lead to serious problems like the one the SLFP is experiencing at present. It is unable to make its stand on the highly unpopular tax increases known to the public because it wants to oppose the government while being part thereof.<\/p>\n

The SLFP, or, to be exact, the Maithri-Chandrika faction has been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. It is on the same page as the UNP when the latter happens to do something popular and promptly shares the credit for that, but when the government decisions irk the public, it pretends to remain neutral or side with the masses. Thus, it seeks to get the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

It is laughable that the SLFP has appointed a committee to study the controversial tax revisions. It should have done so before its Cabinet ministers accepted them. It has, true to form, put the cart before the horse.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet, usurping the powers and functions of Parliament, approved the upward tax revision at issue allegedly at the behest of the IMF and the SLFPers who are ministers are bound by collective ministerial responsibility. They are without any moral right to oppose severally what they have endorsed collectively. Their opposition to VAT and NBT hikes is tantamount to an admission that they did something wrong when they agreed to the tax increases at the Cabinet level.<\/p>\n

The government is likely to adopt a ruse. It knows more than one way to shoe a horse. It may reduce VAT on some goods and services to pacify the irate public and traders on the warpath and increase some other taxes to recover the loss. The lending agencies only want the government revenue increased and they won\u2019t mind VAT and NBT reductions or exemptions so long as more funds keep flowing into the state coffers by way of taxes.<\/p>\n

The government says it has respected the Supreme Court decision on VAT and NBT unlike the Rajapaksa administration which refused to bring down fuel prices in defiance of a Supreme Court order. As for the \u2018fuel price judgment\u2019 the apex court overstepped its limits however salutary its decision was. Interestingly Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is screaming blue murder about a judicial coup against the legislature during the tenure of the controversial Chief Justice who gave the so-called fuel ruling!<\/p>\n

The Rajapaksa government should have reduced fuel prices of its own volition in view of plummeting crude oil prices in the world market. Had it done so besides taking action to reduce the cost of living perhaps it would have been able to avoid the painful pratfalls at the presidential and parliamentary polls last year. That is the fate which befalls regimes that succumb to the arrogance of power and refuse to heed public grievances. (Ironically, the Chief Justice whose order the Rajapaksa government refused to obey as regards petroleum prices is now backing the Rajapaksas to the hilt!)<\/p>\n

It may be recalled that no sooner had the Supreme Court ordered the suspension of the tax increases than the Prime Minister issued a media statement that they would be ratified by parliament and declared that the government had the required numbers in the House for that purpose. The government has chosen to respect the court order at issue obviously under duress vis-\u00e0-vis public protests; it has only made a virtue of necessity. What the government has done is like a cornered pickpocket choosing to return a stolen wallet to its owner for fear of being clobbered by his pursuers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITORIAL\u00a0Courtesy The Island July 20, 2016, 8:53 pm The SLFP finds itself in a peculiar position. Politically speaking, it is neither fish nor fowl. It is part of the incumbent government and at the same time it tries to act as an Opposition party. One may call this political cross-dressing, which, however, is not of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}