Rs. 3,000 additional allowance for pensioners from September

The government has decided to provide an interim allowance of Rs 3,000 to all government pensioners from September in addition to the currently paid interim allowance of Rs 2,500.

Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that steps have been taken to add another Rs 3,000 to the interim stipend of Rs 2,500 currently paid to all pensioners in the public service. Accordingly, Rs. 5,500 will be paid to all government pensioners from September.

An expert’s committee was recently appointed under the chairmanship of U. R. Seneviratne on the instructions of the President to study the disparities in public employee salaries and make relevant future amendments.

The State Minister further mentioned that until the revised salary structure is implemented from 2025 according to the review of the expert committee, this interim allowance will be paid to the retired public servants.

According to statistics there are around 700,000 state pensioners currently and accordingly, the government will have to bear an additional expenditure of Rs.8.4 billion to provide this interim allowance in 2024. Taking into account the current financial difficulties faced by the retired government employees, the government took steps to provide this interim allowance despite the challenges of managing the state budget, the state minister added. Siyambalapitiya also said that this allowance is given as a quick short-term solution to the financial difficulties of pensioners.

Simultaneously, a special meeting was held yesterday (2) morning between the state minister and the officers of the Public Servant Pensioners’ National Movement and discussed how to remove the pension disparity and to increase the interest rate of senior citizens.

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