Sri Lanka’s private sector is overly focused on incentives and protections offered by the Government, noted Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media Mano Tittawella. Addressing a forum today he said that businesses would only invest in the economy depending on the tax incentives offered to them by the Government. “The other day somebody called me and asked ‘if I start an airline in Sri Lanka would you give me landing free for two years and reduced airport charges for three years?’ I said, ‘why would I do a thing like that?’ So it is still very incentive-based. Depending on what the government can give only they will put in the money,” he said. However Tittawella said that the percentage of the private sector which carries this attitude is increasingly less. He also said that while the government is cognizant of protecting domestic industries, that protection cannot be at the expense of the consumers. He requested the private sector to understand this and learn to operate without these protections over time for Sri Lanka to become a tradeable economy. “The world has changed. You have got to be competitive. If you’re not competitive you might as well get into some other business.” He added that this transformation won’t happen immediately but a path must be set for the next 5 years as a medium term measure, which the Government hopes to do through the Budget 2019. When inquired as to why the Government has not been able to establish conducive policies for businesses to grow and for the private sector to thrive, he blamed vested interests of certain powerful businesses. “The reason we haven’t been able to do anything is because they have vested interests. We get calls asking ‘why are you dropping the duty in this, why are you not imposing the CESS on this?’ However he said that this is usually just one or two powerful companies and not the view of the entire industry. “Government is also at fault for entertaining these compalaints.” Tittawella said that the budget would introduce an industry-wise roadmap and it is important that successive governments keep to that plan.