The United National Party (UNP) today said that the government needs to be ashamed over increasing the price of fuel in Sri Lanka while fuel prices in the global market are declining.

The opposition party criticized the government for authorizing a Rs.2 hike in diesel price by Lanka IOC with effect from midnight yesterday.

UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena claimed that the state-owned milk food company increasing the price of milk powder is an invitation for other milk powder companies to raise prices, and accused the government of ‘betraying’ the masses instead of providing relief to them.  

He vowed that the UNP would launch an island-wide mass public protest in the near future, if the government fails to stop increasing the price of fuel in this manner and provide concessions to the public.

Jayawardena further claimed that the government has invested a trillion rupees from the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) on the stock market, and that even though stock prices have currently gone down the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank has assured that stocks would go up in the future.

Playing with innocent public’s money by making such predictions is completely unacceptable, the Gampaha District MP told media persons today (01).