Sudath Gunasekara

11.5.2016

Here is a golden chance for all those politicians who say they have gone to Parliament to serve the people to demonstrate their credentials. In my opinion if they have a wee bit of shame they all should reject this criminal bribe offered by the Government to keep those in the government tied to the post to muster the vote and to allure those on the other side of the fence to cross over.

Each politician calls the other a rogue and those in the opposition rogues who wantonly rob the public. This is a golden opportunity to show the country that they are angels with no blood in their hands who work for the suffering masses day and night. Let us see whether there is a single politician down the line from the President to the ‘poor’ Mp. who haven’t yet being appointed a Minister even without a Ministry and a subject?

I take a bet there will be none.

I am lost to understand as to why the people of this country tolerate this bunch of merciless and blood sucking ‘Alibaba and the 225 thieves’.

The following news item under the caption MPs’ Vehicle Bonanza:”

is only a drop of 40 m one gets once in 3 years in the mighty ocean of bonanzas each one of them, in addition to the thousand and one other privileges and benefits get for keeping the party leaders in the paradise of power while the masses strangulated and blood sucked with VAT and BAT are suffering in the hell of abject poverty and misery.

When I watch the present situation in Sri Lanka it reminds me of the pre-French Revolution France But I don’t think even the pre-Revolution France was as bad as ours as it is going at present. If I am permitted to repeat rather in a slight different form, as Charles Dickens said ‘It is the best of times for them, it is the worst of time for the masses; they have everything before them, we have nothing before us; it is the season of light for them, and it is the season of darkness for us;  it is the spring of hope for them and it is the winter of despair for us, they are all living in salubrious heavens and we are all suffering in boiling hell.

You should not get surprised if tomorrow we have Balu Badda and anga Badda too introduced to give more and more to the poor, malnourished politicians. Whatever they do the green will vote the green, blue will vote the blue and the red will vote the red. The dogs will continue to bark but the caravan will move on.

MR loyalist first to benefit from mega tax waiver

More than Rs. 40 mn tax exemptions for each parliamentarian’s vehicle

May 11, 2016, 7:15 am

By Madura Ranwala

A UPFA Parliamentarian has taken delivery of his tax free vehicle, a brand new Range Rover Sport Diesel S/Wagon released by paying Customs only Rs. 1,750 as Customs Declaration fee. He had paid about Rs. 8.9 mn as Cost Insurance and freight (CIF) for the vehicle a member of the Sri Lanka Customs Unions told The Island last night.

The UPFA MP in the Joint Opposition was among 225 parliamentarians entitled to import luxury vehicles after paying a pittance by way of taxes or charges while the public continued to be burdened with increased new taxes such as VAT and NBT, the unionist said.

The unionist confirmed that the vehicle bearing the chassis no. SALWA2KE7GA561921 and engine number 0988086306DTA had been imported from a British company called Providence Trading Ltd. and cleared recently by a clearing agency in Sri Lanka named Frontline Enterprises in Mattakkuliya.

The vessel Conti Everest, which transported the vehicle, reached Sri Lanka on April 16.

“If the vehicle had been imported to the country with all the taxes, it should be valued at Rs. 45 million in the local market to earn a profit as it would have cost more than Rs. 42 million.

“This concession has been granted under Customs Procedure Code, 4000 / VEE,” he said.

The taxes exempted are Rs. 2,675,047 on Customs Import Duty (CID), Rs. 668,762 on Port Aviation Levy (PAL), Rs. 29,737,603 on Excise Import Duty (XID), Rs. 1,051,740 on Nation Building Tax (NBT) and Rs. 7,888,045 on Value Added Tax (VAT).