You can live on Rs.5,900 a month

Here’s the good news. And it’s official. The Lankan citizen can live on Rs 5,908 a month, according to the latest figures released by the Department of Statistics and Census for January this year.

But before you go overboard with good cheer, hold on. This is way too high than the figure given by Minister Bandula Gunawardena in March 2012 when he declared that a family of three can exist comfortably on Rs. 7,500 a month.

Going by his figures made ten years ago, the average cost per person today has more than doubled from Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 5,908, with those in Colombo having to find an extra Rs. 506 to make ends meet. That’s inflation for you.

Last week, Minister of

Irrigation Chamal Rajapaksa asked the public, ‘’ tell me because I do not know, but is a kilo of rice ample for two for a week?’’

Wonder what his staple diet is, but he has naught to worry. With the price of the best ‘supiri keeri samba’ at Rs. 275 per kilo, he can well afford on his princely cabinet salary of a minimum Rs. 140,000 a month, to turn rice puller and have not one bare meal of rice per day like the masses but three square meals every day for a whole month with another, and still have Rs 138,900 to spare. Especially if he and his rice mate are both on a strict diet.