Cabinet spokesman, Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana yesterday emphasised that the Cabinet focused on drafting a new law to prevent disruption of services related to the basic human needs such as health and education.
Minister Dr. Gunawardhana said that the government considers its responsibility to ensure that schoolchildren, patients and the civilians seeking services at government offices are not affected by carrying out disruptive actions including strikes.
The Minister was speaking at the Media Ministry yesterday. He said that the Cabinet of Ministers discussed about the strike wave in the country when it met under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena in Parliament yesterday.
He said that all Ministers very clearly pointed out financial provisions have even been made for paying the salaries of Rs.10,000 to all government employees for this year despite an unprecedented economic crisis.
He said that the Sri Lankan government is unable to provide more increase than that. It was revealed at the Cabinet meeting that the government has to generate additional fund of Rs.400 billion if their salaries are increased to Rs 20,000. The Finance Ministry Secretary said that the VAT has to be increased to 21 per cent to generate additional funds to provide this increase to the government employees,” the Minister said.
He said there is not enough government revenue to bear the recurring expenses such as salaries, pensions, subsidies including Aswesuma and interests.
“The government pays the salaries of all the employees from the money of the tax payers. The President emphasised that the government will not be able to increase taxes on the people who are under great pressure.”
“The Secretary of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance also explained very clearly that there is no financial provision in this year to give such a salary increase,” he said.
The Minister said that a large number of children today have lost their right to school due to school closures due to strikes. “Under such a situation, the responsibility for maintaining public services is greatly threatened,” he said.
The Cabinet authorised Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to study the possibility of drafting new laws to prevent the disruption of services related to the fulfillment of basic human needs such as education and health.
The President said that the Attorney General had informed him about the possibility of bringing new laws to prevent the continuation of public services such as education and health.
(dailynews.lk)
