Previous Govt. neglected welfare of soldiers : Minister Samaraweera

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera accused the previous government of failing to look into the welfare of soldiers, revealing the newly-revised salaries of state sector officials.

Addressing a news conference, the minister alleged that the former government had used soldiers as a means of leveraging political mileage during their decade long rule.

He claimed that there has been no trace of the ‘Api Venuwen Api’ Fund set-up by the previous government for soldiers, running into millions through donor contributions.

“Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who was in-charge of the Fund, should make a statement on this as a Presidential candidate,” Mr. Samaraweera urged.

He argued that it was the current government which increased allowances of military personnel after two decades, ensuring that differently-abled soldiers would receive a pension equivalent to their salary from the time of retirement until their demise.

Minister Samaraweera claimed that the present government is the first since 1978 to gradually increase the salaries of the 1.4 million strong public servants workforce by 107 percent from 2015 to 2020.

The government, he said, has agreed to increase the wages of public servants from January 1, 2020, in line with the recommendations of the Special Salaries Commission appointed by the President to resolve state sector salary anomalies.

Accordingly, the latest salary revision would see the increment of salaries drawn by public servants including officials serving in top posts in the legal, education, medical, and engineering sectors.

Click here to see salary increments as released by the Finance Ministry