• Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol Bill and New Entertainment Tax

• Impose deterrent punishment

• Shakespeare - may he rest in peace

• Electricity bills and VAT

   

Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol Bill and New Entertainment Tax

The Sri Lankan Parliament on July 5, 2006 passed the Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol bill unanimously which is a great achievement for those who championed this cause and succeeded.

The JHU must be complimented on championing this cause and gratitude needs to be expressed to the parliamentarians who voted for it. Following this success, another achievement was made and that is introducing a New Entertainment Tax on all imported foreign films and will include commercials and serials aired on television channels and the cinemas.

The new Tax Law will impose on imported films and teledramas and dubbed into Sinhala and Tamil, a tax of Rs. 90,000.00 for a 30 minute segment. Foreign commercials aired on television stations will be taxed Rs. 1,000,000.00 while a 30 minute film or drama for broadcasting on television will be charged Rs. 75,000.00 according to a news report in The Hindu.

Hats off to the GOSL for implementing these laws even at this late stage before further damage is done to the social fabric of this country.

With relation to tobacco and smoking, there are arguments for and against on the basis that there is no 100% proof to say that lung cancer is caused only through smoking tobacco whether it be active or passive smoking.

There is of course reports which state that tobacco contains some 3-4000 odd chemicals which are harmful to the health.

Nevertheless, there is a fear in the minds of people. So many who do not smoke actively or passively end up with lung cancer which could also be caused, from diesel/petrol fumes which we see in abundance on the roads from belching vehicles during traffic blocks, or from the numerous insecticides that are sprayed on our vegetables by the farmers.

On the other hand, there are so many heavy smokers who live a healthy life and die without lung cancer! However, measures taken in the right direction to curtail the hazards must be lauded.

Gone are the days when the Film Corporation or Ministry of Culture had strict criteria of what films or teledramas were brought into the country.

Gone are the days, when children of school going age were catered to when importing films to be shown in the public cinemas. When we were small, every Sunday was a day when special Children’s Films were shown in the cinemas and children loved to watch them because they were just pure fun to watch.

Film shows on Sundays became family events and children were given that extra attention to make them feel wanted in our society.

Souvenirs and sweets would be distributed very lavishly to the audience of children at these Sunday shows. Comedies and musicals were as much entertainment to the children as they were to the adults.

In order to curb moral degeneration of our society, the present GOSL has done the wisest thing possible by imposing heavy tax on imported films, tele-dramas and commercials which are low in quality.

Together with the new tax being imposed on these items, it is also high time for the GOSL to appoint a team of high calibre officials to a selection committee which will decide what can or cannot be imported or shown in Sri Lanka. Think this is the least we could expect from our leaders to help train and nurture a healthy and balanced society of the future.

Businessmen who only look at their profit levels will no doubt, be unhappy about this newly introduced tax - it really does not matter because we need our leaders to concentrate more on creating a social environment for a healthy society! We have certainly had enough of perversion so far.

Let us hope that the new import tax law includes the import of CDs, DVDs and all other similar products which are brought into this country. The selectors must definitely be individuals who have the welfare of the country in mind and not the commercial value of the product.

We need to encourage our own film producers to put out high quality films which carry good moral values rather than the obscene and vulgar films which are not good either for adults or the youth.

If the GOSL continues to remain committed to safeguarding our national interests and wish to take stringent measures to ensure a healthy future generation, then the path they are treading on right now, is a welcome breath of fresh air and is moving in the right direction.

Let us hope they can continue to implement similar measures and curb the ills so rampant in our society today.

RAMANI D. WICKRAMARATNE - Kotte

Impose deterrent punishment

Many people whom the people expect to act in an extremely responsible manner and some criminals (such as who sell vehicles to the enemy), today act in a similar manner which is highly detrimental to the country’s interests.

Security force personnel, police officers, politicians, State officers, trade union leaders, journalists and businessmen should be given deterrent punishments even by introducing new laws otherwise we will soon be a dead nation which breaths its last while being a saviour of everybody’s rights and freedom.

DESHAPRIYA RAJAPAKSHA - Colombo 6

Shakespeare - may he rest in peace

The great stage of the famous Lionel Wendt Theatre was the centrepiece of the Inter School - Shakespeare drama competition, as the Semi-finals of this event which was organised by the YMCA and the Rotary Club of Colombo North, was worked out there on June 13,14.

Shakespeare, the great dramatist, the play writer, the script writer or whatever he is called, is no more with us. So, why kill his great works? Why not preserve them in its original splendour, for the future generations. That vocabulary, the grammar and the poetic values could never be found at present times.

At the above competition, it was quite sad to see some of these dramas - these great works of Shakespeare - being modernised and performed without the original glamour and splendour. One school that competed used mobile phones and laptops, of which Shakespeare wouldn’t have dreamt of, while another school went down to the level of staging a wrestling match with modern day tactics.

This made me to check the rules of this competition which merely stated that the competitors could select scenes from the great works of Shakespeare, such as Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, to name a few.

These rules never mentioned about Adaptations from the works of the great Shakespeare. Then why permit this type of modernised versions? Why not strictly adhere to the genuine works of Shakespeare, for a competition of this nature, and maintain the high standards that ought to be preserved?

I was rather surprised to note that, at the end of the two days, the schools that massacred the works of the great Shakespeare, being awarded prizes and being selected to compete in the finals, while a school from Colombo which gave a spectacular performance, may be the only grandeur performance that maintained the originality and the high standards of a scene from Richard the III, being eliminated from the competition with the meagre excuse that 20% of the lines spoken by the actors could not be heard by the judges as the music played in the background, drowned them.

Wasn’t the balance 80 per cent heard by the judges? Was that not enough for them to give a reasonable judgment? Did the judges forget the fact that it was all 19 year downwards by age, that took part in this competition? As these were mere schools children, is it reasonable for the judges to expect very high professional standards? Wasn’t the acting in the drama, the main criteria for the judgement?

I am still drowned among these questions as I feel very sad that a cast of 30 school boys who gave such a magnificent performance on the 2nd day of this significant competition were completely eliminated forgetting the fact that the future of this ‘highly talented cast’ as the judges put it, is adversely affected by this poor judgement.

The actors of the characters of Richard, Richmond and Anne and the idea of having the demons were highly commended by the judges. Then why this misadventure?

P. STANISLAUS - Moratuwa

Electricity bills and VAT

At present the total electricity bill is subjected to 15% VAT if the monthly consumption exceeds 40 kwh which includes the fixed charge as well, depending on the consumption.

With the proposed further increase of electricity tariff from August 1, 2006, I wish to request the authorities concerned that the point at which VAT is imposed be raised on the unit rate as well as on the fixed charge, so as to grant some relief specially to the domestic consumers.

H. W. GOONESEKERA - Panadura