Sir. John Kotelawela, Sri Lanka’s flamboyant prime minister of long ago, once famously said in pithy Sinhala ``handa athey thiyanakan, bedaganilla!’’ That is what the government comprising of politicians and bureaucrats are doing as has long been their habit – serving themselves lavishly while the spoon is in their hand. In a barely concealed effort to curry favour with the public service before an election, the politicians promised bureaucrats concessionary duty cars. While the politicians have already helped themselves to duty free (not concessionary duty) vehicles and nearly doubled their salaries, delivery was slow as far as the public service was concerned. Now that anomaly is being corrected.

Judging by the multitude of new cars on the road, even with import duties of 250 to 350% slapped on their CIF (cost, insurance, freight) value, we are certainly anything but a poor developing country. Regardless of our balance of payments and not-very-comfortable foreign reserves, giant car carriers keep steaming to the Colombo port disgorging all manner of vehicles. These are heavily advertised and readily sold. Despite Sri Lanka’s roads already being loaded beyond capacity, the government is allowing this free flow of vehicles into the country for a reason that is not difficult to fathom. While the importers make some bucks out of the business, the big bucks roll into state coffers. Car imports are an important revenue stream for the government, so unbridled imports are permitted satisfying the gargantuan appetite of a market comprising largely of income tax evaders.

According to a report by AFP, the French news agency, that we carry today, about 20,000 public servants including police and military officers with more than five years service will benefit from this perk which is not a new one. It has been granted before. The argument for granting this concession is that public servants are poorly paid and the emoluments they receive are barely sufficient to keep body and soul together - leave alone buying themselves a vehicle. Given the enormous duties that have been imposed on vehicle imports from the year dot, it is only the upper income categories that can afford a car. There was a time, now long gone, when public servants regarded as a middle income group, were granted car loans by the government so that they could buy themselves a vehicle. In those days, the ubiquitous official car was a virtually non-existent privilege and public servants used their private vehicles for official travel. They were reimbursed for that on a mileage basis and veterans might remember that this payment sufficed to fuel and maintain their vehicles and meet either all or most of the loan instalment.

That really was a good system. Human nature ensures that the user will better look after his own property than that belonging to somebody else, most so a benevolent state funded by a grumbling and groaning taxpayer. In fact even now it would be a good thing if those public servants entitled to the new perk are required to use their concessionary duty vehicles for official travel on the basis of a mileage allowance. Such a proposal will no doubt be shot down given the current situation that the official car is freely used for private purposes with fuel and maintenance provided, plus of course the government paid driver, while the private car remains at home! Public servants like the rest of us are human, after all, and which human being does not serve himself? So why pay for anything out of your own pocket when you can pick the needful out of somebody else’s?

In an editorial published in this newspaper a few weeks ago, we quoted a former head of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation saying that 90% of the vehicles on the road burn fuel paid for somebody other than the person riding in the car. The vehicle perk is not exclusive to government; companies too provide it to middle and higher ranking executives. Clearly the percentage mentioned by the ex-CPC boss was a ballpark figure not empirically established. But it serves the purpose of an anecdotal illustration. A not inconsiderable segment of the private sector has figured out that it is cheaper to pay an employee a monthly allowance to cover the cost of a vehicle rather than fuel and maintain it. Often the perk extends to a car loan as well with the company holding the title to the vehicle until the debt is paid. This probably is an economic method of dishing out a benefit in a sensible way which the government might consider. Whether the State has even an inkling of the enormous cost of the enormous fleet it maintains for the benefit of the bloated public service is amoot point. But economies in this sphere are an urgent need as the problem is already well out of control. Whether political and bureaucratic establishments, notorious for scratching each other’s backs, will ever look at this matter from the national perspective is doubtful. Sadly, the enormous multitude who must eventually pick up the tab also care little about things such as this so the public opinion that might ensure corrective action is unlikely.

Democracy enables politicians to bribe the electorate to win votes. When an aspiring bus or lorry driver pays a corrupt official ``something for your trouble’’ to get his licence, he pays out of his own pocket. Politicians are more fortunate. They pocket the bribes on offer for various ``services’’ they render and bribe the electorate with the country’s resources to get themselves elected. Car importers, no doubt, will be happy at this heaven-sent opportunity to sell 20,000 new cars. Something will flow into state coffers as well because these vehicles are not duty free and 25% duty must be paid. So government’s revenue will be 75% poorer on that account. The used cart market will be gingered because many of those availing themselves of the duty-slashed privilege will sell their present vehicles and get enough to by themselves new cars. All this economic activity will have a knock-on effect on the market and result in more fuel being burned in the country. As in the case of car imports, this too will benefit government because of the little known fact that the government earns a lot of money on the duty it charges on fuel imports. So when you are told that the government is subsidizing your fuel, as is often the case before a price hike, ask whoever is spinning that yarn whether the duty charged has been factored into the sum presented.