Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa said that the public service is a burden and it is not possible to spend public money on the public service in any way for a year.
Speaking at a media briefing today to explain the budget, the Finance Minister said that there is no need to give lozenger (a Candy) to public servants anymore.
The Minister of Finance was responding to a question raised by a journalist regarding the non-allocation of funds for the public service from this year’s budget.
“The public service has expanded heavily and cannot government to bear. No longer we cannot goive sweets, Candies them. We must honestly acknowledge that this public service is a burden to our country. Giving some kind of relief to public servants means collecting money from the people. Taking it and giving it to another party, I want to make it clear that there is no way to spend any more public money on public service for a year.
However, some relief is provided even though financial allocations are not made mainly for public servants. In particular, we know that some public servants have been in the public service for about 45 years. Although they received a ten year pension when they retired at the age of 55, our life expectancy has increased due to the current health situation in our country. Therefore, we have extended the retirement period of a public servant by 10 years. Calculate here how much profit one gets. We had an essential position of experienced public servants in our public service. Therefore, we have taken steps to provide relief to public servants through several other methods. We say once again responsibly that we are not able to expand the number of public servants.
At the time of independence there was one public servant for every 113 people in this country. But today there is one for every 13 people. The public service has expanded so much. In this budget we have not been able to increase their salaries but have provided some relief. We are proud of a country with a large number of disciplined public servants. We are especially pleased with the way the Disaster Act was passed. It is said that the government will be able to carry out the duties of public servants whenever possible. We have also thought long and hard about private sector employees, ”he said.
