Ban Vehicle Imports as an Austerity Drive
The country is at crossroads with the US Dollar dancing to Donald Trump’s tune and very soon at the pace it is moving, the dollar will hit Rs.180 or above. It is time for the country to move on to an austerity gear and all citizens irrespective of their political affiliations should sacrifice certain comforts and goodies to bring some stability to our country which is beyond political agendas.
During the early 60s the country was going through a crisis over foreign reserves and the then government took stringent decisions to curb the situation by imposing restrictions on imports. Those who could remember that era will recall how at a time when there were no television news and mobile phones and people were solely dependent on the media for current news, one morning when we opened the newspapers the headlines said, “importation of all vehicles banned”, just like that and for almost ten years no vehicles of any type including lorries, vans, buses and tractors were allowed to be imported. This would have saved a huge amount of foreign exchange for the country which was a major issue at the time. There were so many car importers, who readily accepted the government’s stand for the sake of the country and no one died because a vehicle was not available to take him or her to hospital, nobody sacrificed a family wedding or an outing for want of a vehicle. The vehicles that were their were carefully maintained and run without any problems. Today the streets are jammed with vehicles and I feel that the number of vehicles on the road is more than sufficient for our country.
Taking the present economic situation that we are suffering because of the unmanageable exchange rate shared by most of the Asian countries. It is time for the government to take strong decisions in the interest of the country and save the drain on our foreign exchange by curtailing non essential imports especially vehicle imports, which will rank number one in the list. Let every citizen stand by such moves for the sake of austerity to regularize the crisis situation. For a start the government should impose a total ban on importing cars, vans and double-cabs for a period of two years and review the situation thereafter. SARIPUTHRA
COLOMBO 5