“Why do we have to pay for politicians’ incompetence and corruption?” is undoubtedly one of the most common questions raised by the public in discussions on the need to increase electricity and water tariffs. The public argues that in a context where they have always purchased electricity and water by paying the stipulated price, which also includes taxes imposed by the Government, if the institutions that provide electricity and water are suffering losses, that is the fault of those institutions. 

Although this matter is far more complex than initially perceived by the public, the people’s claim is not completely flawed. It has been explicitly mentioned and sometimes implied that mismanagement, corruption, waste, political biases, and shortsightedness have played a considerable role in what has befallen these sectors and the people.

Plans are afoot to increase electricity tariffs, merely a few months after the previous hike, while the water supply authorities have raised the need to increase their charges. In both these cases, it had been emphasised repeatedly that there is a large number of individuals and institutions that evade paying electricity and water bills, and that the losses that they have caused are in the range of several billions of rupees.

Leading politicians and several State institutions are at the centre of these allegations. On the one hand, many of them have not paid their electricity and/or water bills for months, if not years, while on the other hand, there is very little in terms of steps, including legal action being taken to collect arrears. When this situation was pointed out by certain parties, many politicians who were accused of not paying their utility bills kept mum, while others lied about having paid bills which were exposed later.

A country cannot move forward with such lies and selfish behaviour which amount to corruption. In Sri Lanka's case, in which the prevailing economic crisis poses massive challenges, such behaviour on the part of any citizen not only further weakens the institutions that provide electricity and water amidst dire situations, but also indirectly slows down the country’s economic recovery. 

That is why politicians should practise what they preach. If they want the people to tighten their belts, as public representatives, politicians should take the initiative. The same applies in the case of the attempt to increase electricity and water charges/tariffs. Politicians have no moral right to ask the people to bear increased utility costs when the former have contributed to the situation that created a need to increase those charges by not paying their bills. While the money owed by politicians as electricity and water bills may be insignificant when compared with the overall losses incurred by these institutions, that money, however, is still a part of those losses.

We all accept that the economic crisis has created a situation where the country has to initiate difficult yet necessary reforms. One such reform should be establishing a proper national-level system to facilitate the collection of arrears from those who evade bills related to utilities. At a lower level, there should also be a system within political parties to reject nomination applications of candidates who evade settling any sort of payment to public or private institutions without justifiable reason. Most importantly, as some political commentators have said, the people should start behaving as citizens who exercise the right to question their representatives’ principles and behaviour, rather than voters who only want election victories for their favourite politicians.