‘Nine million petrol users cannot be 4% of the population’
Know your maths, Ranil tells Mahinda
by Zacki Jabbar
Those who claim that nine million petrol users, works out to four per cent of the population, obviously do not know basic mathematics, Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
Around nine million people including motor cyclists, three wheel taxi drivers and middle class people commute using petrol vehicles, but irresponsible statements by various spokesman for the government indicates their poor knowledge of mathematics. The only conclusion one can draw is that they do not know how much 2 plus 2 adds upto, he said.
Motorcycles and three wheel taxis alone exceed more than two million, but the government is foolishly claiming that only the rich use petrol, Wickremesinghe said. "For the fabulously rich in government petrol prices are of little consequence because they have the luxury of filling up their pajeros and intercoolers with 96 litres of petrol at a time. But, the vast majority of people are not provided with such perks. A standard motorcycle has a maximum capacity of six litres while a three wheel taxi can hold only upto only eight litres."
He said that the government by stubbornly refusing to implement the Supreme Court directive to reduce the price of petrol from Rs.122 to Rs.100 was depriving the suffering masses, relief that they badly need to make ends meet.
Even after the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had saved Rs.5 billion by not paying the oil hedging contract instalments to the banks this month, the price of petrol is not being reduced to Rs.100, Wickremesinghe observed. "The Supreme Court directive on the CPC is very fair because even at Rs.100, it would be able to impose more than 100% in taxes on the sale of petrol."
The Constitution prohibits unreasonable taxation and therefore government claims that the judiciary cannot decide on prices of consumer goods is not tenable, he added.
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