The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake questioned how the Government intends to address unemployment and fulfil promised salary increases within IMF-agreed expenditure limits. He noted that public service salaries and pensions amount to 6 percent of GDP, or about one-third of the permitted total expenditure of 20 percent of GDP, and asked the Deputy Minister to explain the structured plan for managing these fiscal constraints.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I thank the Hon. Deputy Minister for the detailed reply. Hon. Deputy Minister, in the answer you gave, it is stated that 6 percent of GDP is allocated to public service salaries and pensions. Under the agreement you have accepted with the IMF, total expenditure allowed is 20 percent of GDP. That means one-third goes to this. Given that, how do you plan, in a structured manner, to eliminate current unemployment and to increase salaries as you promised? According to you, if pensions cost 1.5 percent, then salaries cost 4.5 percent — a total of 6 percent. That would be 33 percent of total expenditure for salaries and pensions if total expenditure is capped — how will you resolve this?
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 9 January 2025 ·No. 1738229262040729 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 January 2025. No. 1738229262040729. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/23636