Janaka Ratnayake, former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, said that ‘World Consumer Rights Day’ applies to countries like Sri Lanka where consumers have no policies or rights.
Addressing a press conference, he said that Consumer Rights Day was announced to protect the rights of consumers all over the world, but consumers in Sri Lanka do not have such rights. He mentioned that the government has lost the ability to manage the prices of essential goods and commodities including fuel, electricity and water.
“We live in a poorly managed country, the current government cannot control the price of an egg in the local market. Every week there is a topic to talk about essential goods. In the last few weeks, we talked about the price of eggs, and in the last week, we talked about big onions. I can’t imagine what the topic will be next week,” he said.
“All these problems have arisen not because of the shortage of consumer goods, but because of the poor management of the minister and other responsible officials,” he said.