Prices Skyrocket In Jaffna
Photo by Spring M
An alleged Defence Ministry levy of Rs. 80,000 for every 20 foot container lorry transporting goods from Colombo to Jaffna has made prices to rise in the Peninsula, Jaffna sources told The Sunday Leader.
As a result, the price of a kilo of rice in the Peninsula has shot up to Rs. 100, they said.
The rice sold in Sathosa outlets in Jaffna is much cheaper, but those are unfit for human consumption, the sources alleged.
Private transporters are making money by having a virtual monopoly on the A9 run, while five lorries belonging to the Jaffna M.P.C.S. are idling without being used, they claimed.
Only those approved container trucks are allowed to ply on the A9 with goods, the sources said.
These Jaffna entrepreneurs were flown down to Colombo by the E.D.B. last week to train them to be exporters of their products.
The sources also alleged that the Peninsula was bereft of kerosene, though diesel was available.
They further said that the other impediments that affected their lives and their livelihood were the culture of fear prevalent in Jaffna because of the presence of an armed group belonging to a Tamil political party that is aligned to the Government and the fact that the A9 highway which links the South with Jaffna not being fully open.
“We want freedom,” one entrepreneur told this newspaper.
There was an incident where a local politico belonging to that same former militant party who was openly critical of its leadership in the run-up to the recently concluded Jaffna Municipal polls being allegedly assaulted by the supporters of his leader and having had to be warded at the Jaffna Hospital for treatment, he said.
This reporter brought these matters up before Export Development Minister Professor G.L. Peiris at a forum organized in Colombo for these entrepreneurs on Friday.
Peiris directed his Ministry Secretary S. Liyanagama to take necessary action.
Peiris was seemingly unaware of this alleged Rs. 80,000 levy.
The Jaffna entrepreneur referring to the Rs. 80,000 transport levy allegedly charged by the Defence Ministry further said that this not only results in consumer goods being priced higher in Jaffna, it also leads to producers, whose produce to Colombo is also transported from those container lorries not getting an adequate price for their commodities on the pretext of high transport costs.
