Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-12-05

Short Term Measures for reducing the Cost of Living

- The disruption of cultivation in several seasons, due to the adverse climatic condition that prevailed has resulted in a considerable decline of food production in the country and has caused the escalation of prices of food items. Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister pointed out to the Cabinet that the general public are being severely inconvenienced due to the exorbitant prices of the food items especially such as rice, coconut and vegetables varieties and the Cabinet discussed the matter at length.

With a view to controlling this situation, it was decided to take the following measures expeditiously to supply adequate essential food items to the market:

* to facilitate any Private Institution or the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) to import rice under the direction and supervision of the General Treasury;

* to import the coconut kernel required for the coconut related industries and coconuts required for domestic consumption, under the supervision of the Ministry of Plantation Industries;

* to appoint an Officials' Committee to submit proposals expeditiously on the further reliefs that could be provided, in addition to the reliefs already granted by the Government, to the farmers whose cultivation has been disrupted.