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rose by 4.4 percent during the 12 months to June, up from 4.0 percent in May, as the prices of many vegetable varieties soared amid the fuel price hike’s pass through effects.
On a month-on-month (MOM) basis, the inflation grew by 2.0 percent in June.
Perhaps in an attempt to curb any more increases in consumer prices, the government last week reduced the price of the 12.5 kg domestic gas cylinder by Rs.138.
The ad-hoc policies not backed by scientific evidence but by impulses and emotions have delivered a deadly blow to the Ceylon Tea industry, a prominent State Minister said.
Delivering the keynote address at 124th AGM of CTTA, the State Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Dr. Harsha de Silva said: “The sudden appearance of the beetle lava in a container led to the immediate suspension of our tea exports to Russia. But of course we know that there wasn’t really a beetle, but another ad-hoc decision to ban imports of Russian asbestos.”
The State Minister noted that despite his requests pointing out to potential negative consequences of the ban, President Maithripala Sirisena decided to listen to his advisors.
“In fact, I did speak to the President and said we must not make such ad-hoc decisions. But of course other peoples’ advice was what he listened to,” he lamented.
He pointed out that clearest failure in inconsistence and nonscientific, ad-hoc policymaking is exemplified by the glyphosate ban for its complicated fallout.
“We must try to reduce these uncertainties by making decisions based on scientific evidence, research and careful weighing of options. Once a good decision is made, barring new evidence, we must stick to those policies,” he asserted.
Further responding to Anslem Perera’s criticism on the government and regulatory framework, de Silva affirmed that the industry stakeholders must reach consensus on how to take Sri Lankan tea forward, as there are two varying proposals from exporters and planters.
Planters have been insisting that diversification should take place under the Ceylon Tea umbrella, while the exporters have been arguing that diversification should take place via integration into global supply chains.
However, de Silva pointed out that it’s possible to integrate into global supply chains while protecting the Ceylon Tea brand and Sri Lanka’s tea industry.
He also stressed that the production cost could be cut down by automation and integrating operations into IT platforms with investments into R&D.
Source - https://www.pressreader.com/sri-lanka/daily-mirror-sri-lanka/20180702/282501479376180
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