Double pay-hikes for President, PM and MPs

The President and all parliamentarians will get a thumping double pay hike with arrears while in the future their pay will be adjusted on par with the revisions of the salary structure in the judicial service, according to two resolutions rushed through parliament this week. The two resolutions gave pay hikes to the President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker, Ministers, the Opposition Leader, Deputy Ministers, the deputy Speaker and the Deputy Chairman of Committees.

Salary increases from the Prime Minister down to MPs are given according to comparative posts in the judiciary with the Premier’s salary on par with that of the Chief Justice, the Speaker’s with the Attorney General and others on par with salaries of puisne Judges, Appeal Court judges and High Court judges respectively.

Though judges were given a pay rise earlier this year, no such raise was granted to legislators due to public pressure. The two resolutions were passed without debate soon after the end of the committee stage debate of the votes on the Ministry of Mass Media and Information on Thursday. The move follows agreement to this effect at a party leader’s meeting where it was also decided to pass a resolution giving a pay rise to the elections commissioner.

When the resolution with the pay rise for the President and others were earlier placed on the order book, it caused a public uproar, forcing the government to defer it. But on Thursday, the pay-hike resolutions were passed with all parties agreeing. Accordingly, the President’s pay has been increased to Rs. 61,250 with effect from January this year and this will further go up to Rs. 97,500 by January 2007. His present salary is Rs. 25,000. The Prime Minister’s salary will go up to Rs. 54,000 with effect from January this year and Rs. 71,500 from January 2007. His present salary is Rs. 34,000. The Speaker’s salary will go up to Rs. 50,900 from 1.1.2006 to Rs. 68,500 from January next year. His present salary is Rs. 31,800.

Cabinet, Non-Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition will get Rs. 47,402.50 from 1.1.2006 and this will go up to Rs. 65,000 next January. Their present salary is Rs. 29,815. The Deputy Speaker, the Deputy Ministers and Deputy Chairman of Committees will get Rs. 46,125 from 1.1.2006 and this will go up to Rs. 63,500 from January next year. Their present salary is Rs. 28,750. The salary paid to MPs will be Rs.38,192 from 1.1.2006 and this will increase to Rs. 54,285 from January 2007. In 2005 they will receive Rs. 22,000.

Fifty per cent of the arrears will be paid this year while the rest will be paid from January next year, according to the resolution.
On Thursday, parliament also approved a salary increase for the Commissioner of Elections whose annual salary for 2007 will be Rs724,080 compared with Rs 633,603 in 2006.

No funds to pay pension arrears
The Pensions Department was in a crisis this week as it ran short of Rs. 2,000 million to pay gratuity arrears for pensioners ahead of the festive month of December, Pensions Department Chief K.A. Thilakaratne said. The Treasury allocated Rs. 5000 million for the gratuity payments at the beginning of the year but due to the rising cost of living and the consequent rise of pensions, the Pensions Department was left with no funds to pay the gratuity arrears for December, he said.

Although the Pensions Department received an extra 9000 million rupees as a supplementary allocation for the payment of these arrears, the department was still short of Rs. 2,000 million to pay the arrears. About 4,300 unpaid gratuity vouchers were said to be stacked up in the Pensions Department while discussions took place between the Treasury and the Pensions Department to sort out the payment of these arrears.

Mr. Thilakaratne said the Department appealed to the Treasury and received Rs. 1300 million. “We had no money to pay these arrears so we informed the Government Agents and Divisional Secretariats to hold these payments until further funds are received,” he said.Mr. Thilakaratne added that the Pensions Department received an additional Rs. 500 million from the Treasury and would begin the payment of these arrears on Monday, November 27.“We cannot pay such a large amount of money at once but we are starting the payments on Monday,” he said.

The Kandy and Colombo District Secretariat offices confirmed that they had received instructions from the Pensions Department to withhold the payments of arrears until further notice. They said the situation would not affect the average pensioner adding that monthly pensioners would receive their allowance without delay on December 7.