The Committee on Public Finance Chairman Dr. Harsha De Silva told Parliament yesterday (20) that the Committee appointed to look into the salary increase of Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) employees has recommended that the CBSL staff salary hikes of 70 percent be suspended until next year.
The Chairman also mentioned that the Committee has also recommended that the privileges given so far by the Employees’ Provident Fund should be reconsidered while measures should be taken to stop paying higher interest from the fund to CBSL employees.
He stated this while presenting the report approved by the CoPF to the Parliament. The Chairman said that the report has recommended that the salary for the positions of Management Assistant and office assistant at CBSL cannot be given high even though they work for the CBSL and the salary of those positions should be equal to the salary of same positions of the government sector.
Sri Lanka Board of Investment Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody was the Chairman of the committee appointed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Dr.Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Arjuna Herath, Sudharma Karunaratna, Nihal Fonseka, Anushka Wijesinghe, Duminda Hulangamuwa and K.V.C.Dilrukshi were its other members.
The Committee has recommended five options related to the incident. One recommendation is to extend the three-year collective agreement for another two years so that it does not apply to salary increases. It has also been recommended to conduct an analysis next year regarding salary increase. Basically, the Committee has indicated that it is wrong for the CBSL’s top and low ranking officials to work according to one collective agreement and they should be divided into two groups.
The report also mentioned the Employees’ Provident Fund.
The report stated that giving special privileges to CBSL employees from the fund should not have been done and should be corrected in addition to the general benefits that members receive from the Fund. The report has also pointed out that the Central Bank should have paid more attention to the situation in the country before increasing salaries. These recommendations of the committee have been passed by the majority of the CoPF. This report is requested to be forwarded to the Finance Ministry.
(Daily News)
