Another game of chicken

Thursday 4th June, 2026

The government has locked horns with private bus operators, who are demanding a fare hike amidst soaring fuel prices. The former has rejected the fare hike demand out of hand, claiming that it is unfair. President of the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association Gemunu Wijeratne has threatened to launch a bus strike unless a fare increase is granted forthwith. He has claimed that there is legal provision for the annual bus fare revision due in July to be advanced. The government and the irate private bus owners are now playing a game of chicken.

School vehicle operators have warned that they will have to increase fees. Trishaw owners have also demanded a fare hike. Container truck operators have already increased freight charges by 5% to offset surging operating expenses, primarily driven by higher diesel prices, inflated costs of tyres and spare parts.

A brutal one-two combination—fuel price hikes and rupee depreciation—has sent all vehicle owners, save a few, to the canvas, so to speak. The prices of spare parts, lubricants and tyres have also skyrocketed. It is only natural that transport operators are demanding fare revisions. The government should stop making political statements and address the issues facing the transport sector. The public cannot take any more shocks, and another fare hike is something everyone needs like a hole in the head. It may not be feasible to grant the bus operators’ request for a fuel subsidy, but the government may be able to help them lower costs in some other way.

It will not be possible to overcome Sri Lanka’s balance of payments woes, strengthen the rupee and shore up foreign currency reserves without a proper strategy to reduce the national fuel bill, which accounts for more than 20% of the total value of imports. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has pointed out that the country’s monthly fuel import expenditure has surged nearly six-fold. Driven by escalating tensions in West Asia, the fuel import bill rose from USD 98 million in February to USD 522 million in May, according to him. There is no gainsaying that drastic measures need to be adopted to reduce fuel consumption urgently. However, increasing fuel prices is not the only way to achieve this goal.

A country does not need a government to curtail the demand for fuel through price hikes. The JVP-NPP administration should be able to strategise to reduce fuel consumption through other means if it is to be considered worth its salt. Minister Anura Karunathilake and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman D. J. A. S Rajakaruna have gone on record as saying that action will be taken to have the QR-based fuel rationing system strictly regulated. Why didn’t the government care to do so earlier? If the fuel quota system is to be effective, the practice of motorists sharing the QR codes must be brought to an end. If the national fuel consumption has reached an unmanageable level, as President Dissanayake has said, will the government explain why fuel quotas were increased.

President Dissanayake and his government should learn from India’s efforts to reduce fuel consumption and adopt a top-down national austerity approach to conserve foreign exchange amidst external economic pressures. India’s strategy emphasises reducing official fuel use, adopting digital alternatives to travel, and promoting public transportation to manage energy consumption. After all, the JVP-led NPP came to power, promising austerity measures, which it must now adopt to curtail state expenditure while reducing the burgeoning import bill.

The JVP-NPP government is slow in responding to emergencies. Its disaster response following the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah was woefully tardy. It ignored warnings and waited until the country’s fuel reserves were almost depleted to introduce the QR-based rationing. It cannot wish away the threat of a private bus strike. It must get the bus owners around the table and have a serious discussion on how to resolve the transport sector woes instead of bellowing rhetoric.

from The Island https://ift.tt/v3lXFiB