Allowance for pensioners too
The following letter on the budget was received from a reader seeking the newspaper’s attention “kaaarunika avadhanaya” (your attention).
The salary of the public servants was increased in January 2016. The benefit was to be spread over five years. The final installment of this quite substantial salary revision will be paid on January 2020. A “Lekam’s”(Secretary’s) salary was increased from Rs. 64,000 to Rs. 133,000 per month by this revision.
In spite of this Mangala in his latest budget feels that the public servant must be paid an allowance of Rs.2500 from July 2019 to meet the COL of the day. Very good!
There are two categories of public servants who depend on a salary from the Government to live: Serving public servants and retired public servants.
In Sinhala the pension is correctly termed as Vishraama Vatupa. It is a Vatupa (salary) no doubt. The principle is that both serving and retirees have no other income but the salary paid by the State.
Therefore, ethically and principally, it is not possible for the Government to increase the monthly wage of a serving public servant and completely ignore the retiree. The logic is quite obvious. COL is a common factor for both.
Thus the Government must at least give some allowance say 30 per cent of the Rs. 2500 allowance to the retired public servants. They should not be ignored in the COL allowance.
Mangala and others at the “House” get pension rights after a mere 5-year stay whereas a public servant must put in a minimum of 20 years for a pension and 30 years for a full pension.
Kuda Appu
Colombo.