By Uditha Jayasinghe
COLOMBO, March 1 (Reuters) - Public sector staff at Sri
Lankan hospitals, banks and ports walked out on Wednesday, with
some taking to the streets and other employees including
teachers dressing in black, in a widespread protest against
soaring living costs.
The island is grappling with its worst economic crisis since
gaining independence from Britain in 1948, beset by inflation
above 50%, a shortage of foreign exchange, a plummeting currency
and a steep recession.
The government has this year hiked income taxes to up to 36%
and raised power tariffs by two thirds as it bids to put its
public finances and debt in order and qualify for a $2.9 billion
International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout provisionally agreed
in September.
Public sector unions have called for a fairer tax regime,
and around 2,000 port workers, already staging a work-to-rule,
on Wednesday held a demonstration in support of that demand
during their lunch break in the commercial capital Colombo.
"We are protesting because we are finding it difficult to
live. This income tax bill must be removed if not we will ensure
that there are more problems for this government," Niroshan
Gorakanage, Convenor for the Ports Trade Union Alliance told
reporters.
Elsewhere, hundreds of government employees wore black
clothes and armbands and flew black flags outside state
buildings.
Most banks across the country were closed for the day as
banking unions joined the strike, and government hospitals were
hit as nurses staged a four-hour strike and doctors joined
demonstrations, union officials said.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament last week
that the tax reform was needed to shore up public finances under
the terms of the IMF loan.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; editing by John Stonestreet)
