Tis the season to be jolly

I had expected yet more taxes to be imposed on consumer goods over the Avurudhu holidays.

Much to my disappointment, the Government did absolutely nothing, but they seemed to have saved the price increases for the Vesak holidays.

Milk powder, cement and gas have been the targets this time around. For anyone who still boils their drinking water here is a tip: buy a good quality water filter and save the gas. I would recommend the Unilever Pureit, which is one of the best around. It is available locally.

As for milk power- for adults in South Asia who lack a gene to produce the necessary enzymes to digest milk, drinking milk-especially in large quantities is a waste so you may as well as give it up. Its perfectly alright to add a little milk to ones tea or eat some ice cream but one can give up a regular glass of milk without foregoing much in the way lost nutrition.

For the rest, there is not much other than to tighten ones belt and plans ones travel arrangements carefully.

 The Government claims that the tax is not for the purpose of raising revenue (to pay for such necessities as an airline that managed to lose in a single year, almost four times its purchase price) but to help local farmers. This has been repeated oft enough and people may think that helping farmers is a good thing. The Government needs to to make a choice - do they want to support half a million farmers or four million households? Consumers, who bear the brunt of this supposed generosity need to ask why this is necessary.