Whilst it was admirable of the new Govt.
in its Budget to recommend the scrapping of all duty concession on vehicles,
the following rage of those who were losing this ENTITLEMENT certainly
disgusted me.
It is supposedly the crème of state
society that get this permit, and for them to complain like common scavenges
losing their scavenging rights was to say the least despicable.
Take Doctors. They get a free Education
that costs the state Rs20M and within a short time they can build a thriving
private practice, where they earn a lot of money, and often use their position
in a state hospital to canvass for patients! Frankly they should have NO MORE
rights to any more subsidy beyond what they have already received. In any case
the permit system, shifts the resources from possibly other more productive
uses, to buying a car. After all Doctors buy fancy cars, and then thy take a
loan to pay for it, and charge their patients through their noses to pay this
sometimes Rs200K a month lease payment!
In a similar vein, the Public Servant
who got the permit was a senor public servant, who moonlights. In any case with
a Permit, he still has to buy a car, and so to pay for this as above, earns a
lot of money moonlighting against the rules of his employment, misusing his position
of trust that the Public have given.
As mentioned above, this too distorts values,
as he is forced into a car purchase when another more attractive means like educating
his kids instead of paying a huge lease payment for a car!
I do not need to make any mention of Elected
people, as they use this as some sort of status symbol, that detracts from their
real purpose of servants of the people, who with their permits transports them into
rulers of people!
In short it is clear that the allocation
of resources for the common good is distorted, as permits only helps foreign car
companies to sell cars in Sri Lanka that then need foreign petroleum to run them,
foreign tires to wheel them, and foreign spare parts to repair them, making it the
most absurd subsidy that distorts human behavior against all interests of the Country.
As politicians benefited from this, they
had no intention of explain how bad this is for the economy. Therefore this story
here in this blog entry has not been made clear to people, so that they would not
have complained at all if they realized he public knew the truth about the real
harm permits do to the Sri Lankan Economy.
I will still beg the Govt. NOT to give any
concession and abandon this now!
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