during fire sale

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Unions in the power and energy sector oppose the government’s move to reorganize the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). They will lead the public to believe that politicians should be held accountable for the colossal losses suffered by the two institutions.Successive governments have mismanaged state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but the responsibility for ruining them should be apportioned to the worker.

Trade unions in the CEB have exploited the organization’s monopoly power to flourish their own nests, while making little valuable effort to improve services to the public. So does his corresponding CPC. The challenge of developing the power sector cannot be met with resistance from various lobbies controlling the CEB, who are disgusted with renewables and do everything in their power to discourage solar producers.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his interim budget speech yesterday, revealed the government’s plan to create a force called the ‘State Enterprise Restructuring Unit’ to facilitate the restructuring of SOEs. He specifically mentioned Sri Lanka, the CEB and the CPC as institutions in need of restructuring, but the government is said to be planning to sell SOE as well, which generates revenues such as Sri Lanka Insurance.

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are a daily occurrence and there is no way to go against global trends and keep the white elephant alive, but how wise is it to throw your baby out with the bath water? Efficient and Profitable. We have public businesses that help us increase state revenues significantly, but I don’t understand why we need to sell them. Sri Lanka Insurance is one of them.

There is nothing inherently wrong with restructuring, and it is anathema to some politicians who promote populist policies, but indiscriminate restructuring of state-owned enterprises is not recommended. If the profitable state-owned enterprises were to be sold as planned, the state’s revenue would be significantly reduced. How does the government propose to meet such a revenue shortfall? ? Will the tax hike continue? VAT has already been increased from 12% to 15%.

For state-owned enterprises that have suffered losses, the causes should be identified and corrective measures taken before they are sold. Most state-owned enterprises are overstaffed as successive governments have used them to provide jobs for their supporters. Examples are the CPC and the national bus and train services. The heads of most state-owned enterprises are political puppets who are ineligible to be employed as workers in the state sector. Ultimately, the real problem is the political wreckage that people have chosen to rule this country.

If increasing national revenues is the goal of the government, regardless of the methods adopted to achieve that objective or the suffering it causes to the people, then the task of running the country is to exploit the masses and maximize profits. I’m good at making it.

Meanwhile, the government appears to be using all the tricks in the book to justify and promote its sell-off program. . Kanchana Wijesekera, Minister of Power and Energy, appeared on television to declare that the payment for the fuel shipment has been completed. CPC said it has sufficient oil stocks available. But the fuel queue formed again. (I wonder if the “Q” in his QR code on the national fuel ticket stands for “queuing”!) How can this phenomenon be explained? Was an artificial fuel shortage created to turn public opinion against the Chinese Communist Party and justify the government’s structural reform plans? Unscrupulous politicians and their bureaucratic minions prefer spot purchases of fuel for obvious reasons. They make the most of their scarcity of essentials to achieve their sinister ends. They turned it into art.

http://island.lk/fire-sale-on/ during fire sale