The Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Ministry of Health.

¶ 02 In the last Budget, the President reduced many allowances of health human resources. Doctors and all health professionals raised this with your Government, which promised to address it in this Budget. Yet, even now, there is no meaningful attention to human resources in health.

¶ 03 Our governments often talk about infrastructure and buildings, but not about human resources in ministries and public services. During the war, doctors and health staff risked their lives. In the 2004 tsunami too, health workers served with immense sacrifice. During COVID-19, they worked round the clock, prioritizing the nation over themselves. In the economic crisis, many of their demands were set aside. Recently, the President told Parliament that we have saved Rs. 1 trillion, will raise another Rs. 150 billion from VAT, and that there is no financial problem—funds are plentiful. Yet the Government has no plan to safeguard the human resources that deliver 66 percent of services. Medium- and long-term, this will collapse the health sector. Many doctors still intend to migrate; you ask those abroad to return, but those here are preparing to leave.

¶ 04 Provide fair facilities: if you cannot pay the full Rs. 280,000 transport allowance, at least Rs. 120,000, especially for those serving in distant districts like Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Moneragala, Badulla, Bandarawela, Nuwara Eliya. If you have saved Rs. 1 trillion and expect Rs. 150 billion more, why can’t you provide a transport allowance to the village doctor who serves the poor?

¶ 05 Current taxes mean 36 percent income tax; effectively, after 12 months’ work, you take the pay for about two months. Before the election, you promised to reduce PAYE for doctors, and to give vehicle permits to public servants including doctors, while removing MPs’ permits. Now MPs get about 1,700 cabs; why this obsession with cabs? Meanwhile, you deny transport allowances and vehicle permits to doctors. Those who accuse doctors of selling permits had themselves sold their permits as MPs and later donated proceeds to party funds.

¶ 06 If the President and Government do not resolve the health sector’s problems, an acute crisis will ensue. When teachers or principals are transferred, politicians intervene; but a doctor or judge who is transferred cannot even get their child admitted to a school in the new location. How can they serve happily under such conditions?

¶ 07 You say there is Rs. 1 trillion in the account, yet over 100 medicines are short. The Minister asks to write prescriptions to buy outside; we have seen a Sri Jayewardenepura doctor remanded for months for issuing such a prescription earlier. Now you allow it, but require five approvals—by the time patients get them, they suffer. If later someone claims the drug was available in-hospital, the doctor is jailed. You changed the system in a way that punishes doctors.

¶ 08 Today, over 185 medicines are short, yet you claim to have funds and raise unlimited taxes—even small tea shops pay VAT. From one side, you demoralize professionals; from the other, you do not supply drugs, consumables, or operating theatre equipment; stents are unavailable in practice despite claims.

¶ 09 Please stop claiming everything is fine. Provide medicines to hospitals with the same enthusiasm you showed in importing 1,700 cabs. Engage with doctors and health staff, and resolve their practical problems.

¶ 10 Thank you.