Rising prices and ‘accountability’

by S. L. Gunasekara

May 7, 2012 

There was a time, not too long ago when even a relatively small increase in prices led to consternation among the public. Thus, an increase of even 10 cents in the price of a gallon [not litre] of petrol; or of 2 or 3 cents in the price of a cigarette made the people throw up their hands in collective horror and seek to cut down on purchases of such commodities. Accordingly, an increase in the price of petrol led to there being fewer cars on the road, while an increase in the price of cigarettes led to smokers endeavouring, with some success at the start, to cut down on their smoking. However, Sri Lankans being Sri Lankans, none of these counter measures lasted long and the people having become used to the price increases, went back to their usual patterns of consumption.

Today, however, things are different, and the people who have become virtually anaesthetized by frequent price increases by successive governments which now increase them not by a few cents but by varying sums of rupees from about Rs 10-15 to Rs. 100 or 150 or more, do not even throw up their hands in collective horror or make even a short-lived effort at consumer resistance. By and large they just ‘grin and bear’ because they have little or no alternative.      Read more...