The Hon. Chamara Sampath Dasanayake

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson, since the Leader of the House is present, I must highlight a major fraud: at an institution under my purview, the Chair wrote a cheque to a company called “Janith” for Rs. 21,846,432 instead of Rs. 464,248. Last Saturday you removed him from the post. I table the cheque copy and related letter.

¶ 02 His Excellency delivered a fine speech today. When we were in Government and he was in Opposition, he said there were whistles but no buckets. Today, I fear there are neither whistles nor buckets.

¶ 03 He announced raising the PAYE threshold to Rs. 150,000 and increasing WHT to 10%. Fine. Vehicles must also be imported. Under the previous government (“Seeya’s” government), proposals were made to increase salaries: Rs. 15,000 for lower-level public servants, Rs. 39,000 for teachers, over Rs. 50,000 for SLAS officers. This Government has yet to address those proposals. We welcome vehicle imports, but with the dollar moving from Rs. 280–290 towards Rs. 330, you must manage rupee revenues and deliver promised salary hikes using customs revenues from vehicle imports. Pre-2016 retirees are waiting for pension adjustments; lower grade staff await Rs. 15,000; teachers await Rs. 39,000; administrators await Rs. 50,000 increases. These can be funded if you manage import duty revenues and also keep the dollar stable—do not let it climb to Rs. 330, which would trigger another crisis.

¶ 04 About 5,000 public officers hold pending vehicle permits, wondering what will happen. Decide whether to honour those permits. Politicians do not need permits; we did not take them last time, and we do not want them now. But public officers are waiting.

¶ 05 We appreciate the school support grant. You aligned PAYE and WHT per IMF discussions and removed VAT from yoghurt and liquid milk while increasing VAT elsewhere. Still, public service salaries must be raised. State expenditure has risen by 34% while revenue has fallen by 1%. You must still find funds for pensions and salary increases. Police officers’ ration and clothing allowances are in arrears for three months. Some institutions have not paid year-end bonuses. People had higher expectations. Even if PAYE adjustments gave with one hand, they were taken with the other. Address public servants’ and police officers’ issues as well. Finally, people voted for you after only seeing the book’s cover; now deliver on the contents.