Cut spending by privatising loss-making state The government must cut spending on loss-making state institutions and instead privatise these agencies, respondents in a BT email poll this week on the forthcoming budget, are urging the authorities. These in

,On overspending:

This is clearly seen. University students are being made into tax spenders (Rs. 50,000 this financial year) bloating the state workers at the expense of society. Subsidies are given to producers in the form of fertilizer and electricity when cancer and other desperately ill patients are sleeping on corridors in the general hospital. State enterprises losses financed with taxes is obscene. SriLankan Airlines receiving Rs. 13 billion a year ($100 million) is an utter waste of money that is nothing short of incredible. There have been complains that the cost of roads per km is one of the highest in the world. Similar charges are being made about rail tracks, both constructed by the Indian and the Chinese.

On rising cost of living:

The Central Bank (CB) is generating lower levels of in- flation than before. But monetary policy could be improved. Next year's single digit inflation target is a step in the right direction. But if there is more state spending and the CB is forced to print money, inflation will go up and the rupee will depreciate, pushing up the cost of living. Also high taxes generally keep prices up. The self sufficiency obsession of economic nationalists and rulers is a key reason for high prices for the poor, particularly in food. Sri Lanka has one of the highest food prices in the world due to protectionism and an inefficient farming sector. Probably the most inefficient rice, potato, and onion farmers in the world, certainly South Asia. Building material producers are also getting protection and fleecing those who seek shelter. Shoemakers are the same. To force these monopolists to be efficient and lower