Comment:

How fuel policies dissipate like aerosol spray

A national policy on petroleum consumption will be the latest among the many national policies discovered and dispensed as a nostrum, but hardly ever implemented to achieve the desired objectives.

According to the authors of the new national policy, the objective is to control consumption and reduce wastage of fossil fuels. According to the Central Bank governor, the immediate issue of concern is high crude oil prices (though prices have been reducing during the last few weeks) resulting in a high import bill.

As the CB governor mentioned our national Bill for fuel amounts to an astronomical Rs.2.2 billion. Reducing wastage of any product to let its price reflect the true cost. That's market theory. All donor agencies, and economics czars particularly of the neo liberal persuasion advocate this.

Until very recently we provided billions of rupees as a fuel subsidy. Even at a subsidised price, the price of fuel was extremely high and that was a deterrent towards wasteful consumption. That's the even more underscored trend today.

But wastage occurs in unchecked areas. One is in the generation of electricity. Even when the crude oil price was at its peak, close to $ 80 per barrel, as a nation we had no option but to depend on thermal power.

This is not a newly identified issue and it has been on the minds of the policy think-tanks for years. Solutions, such as alternative energy sources and extensive plans for large coal and hydro power projects are in the pipeline. Funding agencies were ready to finance various projects.

But political leadership of all past governments failed to market these projects and convince the people and the organised working classes, trade unions and the spoiler elements the importance of these proposals.

Eventually, all plans and programs failed and the CEB is the prime offender when it comes to wasting of petroleum resources in the country.

Secondly, the transport sector is an energy wastrel. There are many studies, working papers and proposals, that highlight the Colombo city traffic issue and concomitant waste of energy. There are solutions too.

We in media have to regularly exult over touted solutions. In the recent past we reported about the express train services to the Katunayake airport, a Colombo metro service, rail and bus combined service, tax on vehicles entering the Colombo city and such proposals springing from superabundant imaginations.

All election manifestos of governments contain attractive proposals to solve the transport problem. But the general commuter malaise gets worse.

The general commuter transport sector is deteriorating daily and as a result anybody who can hardly maintain a private vehicle adds another vehicle to road traffic. Better public transport services would reduce fuel wastage significantly.

Highways and road infrastructure networks will also help to reduce fuel wastage by cutting travelling time significantly.

Another important area that the state or the private sector of the country has not recognised is the very advanced telecommunication infrastructure Sri Lanka has today.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a fast growing area in global commerce today, and most of the EU companies and the US get their work done in developing countries such as India.

If private companies and key government agencies start outsourcing their activities it would help stop the physical movement of their workers and contribute to cut fuel waste. But BPO is still a policy question being mulled over.

Home sourcing is also another solution. This is where people do not have to report to work physically but work from home via the net. Finally, no policy will be worth the paper it's written on, if implementation is tardy and ineffectual. It's a homily worth repeating.