CoL explosion: Consumers battered and bruised

Hapless consumers already battered and bruised by the rising cost of living are in for a further hammering, when price increases on vegetables, rice, bread and fuel would be soon followed by an increase in electricity tariffs and bus fares.Last week the price of a kilo of rice shot up to Rs. 85 from an earlier Rs. 75 while prices of most varieties of vegetables like brinjals, tomatoes, cabbage, chillies and onions also rose sharply during the past few weeks.

A kilo of tomatoes and pumpkin had risen by Rs.5 last week while a kilo of potatoes had risen to Rs.100 and dried chillies to Rs.210 with even the much wanted coconut going up by Rs.2. Increases in price of rice has been attributed to the scarcity of rice in the country and to counter this situation the government had ordered 40,000 metric tonnes of rice which when delivered would hopefully stabilize the local rice market.

This influx of rice into the local market is bound to benefit the consumers somewhat; the government insists the move would not impact adversely on the prices of rice harvested by our farmers. Trade Ministry Secretary Dr. R.M.K. Ratnayake told the Sunday Times the government held a stock of 3000 metric tonnes in its warehouses while an additional 10,000 metric tonnes was expected to arrive from India today.

A further 30,000 metric tonnes had been ordered from Pakistan and was due to arrive in Sri Lanka within the next few weeks.“Our immediate objective is to address the problem of rice shortage in the country. Once our local produce enters the market, the need for imports will not arise but we will have to keep the import option open to stabilise the market as and when necessary,” he said.

Meanwhile the increase in the price of wheat has pushed up the price of a 450 gram loaf of bread by Rs. 3 to Rs. 38. Bakery Owners’ Association President Parakrama Dassanayake said due to the increase in the price of wheat products the local demand had dropped by 10%. He said a further drop in demand had been prevented by the increase in the price of rice.“But the increase in rice prices was a blessing in disguise to bakery owners because with the rise in rice prices and the resultant demand for rice will only result in pushing up the sale of wheat flour products,” he said.

Electricity tariffs are bound to increase soon as the government and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) discuss possible subsidies to be granted to the CEB for the purchase of diesel at a discounted price from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

With the CPC last week announcing an increase in the litre of petrol by Rs.10 and a litre of diesel by Rs. 5 the CEB is bound push up electricity tariffs no sooner government approval is obtained. CEB Chairman Udayasiri Kariyawasam told the Sunday Times that nothing had been finalized by the government although discussions between the CEB and the Treasury would continue during the next few weeks.

“We have been continuously suffering losses but after the world market fuel price increases our losses have increased substantially but no tariff hikes have been calculated yet and this is still under discussion,” he said. CEB Joint Trade Union Front President Ananda Nimalaratne said to offset losses the CEB requires a tariff hike of about 40% although the intended increase will be around 10% to 15%.

Meanwhile, following on the recent increase in fuel prices, bus fares would be increased by as much as 4.7% soon with the private bus owners complaining that they were unable to wait until June when the annual price revision was due to be discussed. During the last week prices of fish, eggs and almost all other meat products showed an upward trend.