The one-day token strike organized by Sri Lanka’s trade unions on Wednesday to protest the government’s massive tax and utility rate hikes has brought daily life in the crisis-hit island nation to a grinding halt and disrupted services in key sectors like airports, ports, and banking.
The trade unions belonging to various sectors called the strike after defying an essential services order issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and urging his government to withdraw its tax hikes.
In January, President Wickremesinghe, who is also the country’s finance minister, hiked corporate taxes to 30 percent from 24 percent after raising VAT (Value Added Tax) to 15 percent last year. The Sri Lankan government introduced tax hikes with effect from January, widely believed to be on demand by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“We have launched the strike from 7 a.m. today to 7 a.m. tomorrow. We won’t accept the essential services order. This is an action to highlight our hardships with tax increases,” Niroshan Gorakanage, a port trade union leader, as per report.
He said the eight ships that were set to arrive on Wednesday and the ships that were scheduled to leave the Colombo port were hit by the strike.
Channa Dissanayake, a bank employees trade union official, said work in the two state banks, including the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, have been curtailed on Wednesday.Teachers’ trade union spokesman Joseph Stalin said teachers were wearing black armbands to work to protest the government’s move.
