The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe - Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, this is the issue. There is a serious problem about what to say, where to say it, and where to make disclosures. Officials are summoned before the Committee on High Posts out of responsibility. It is a key parliamentary committee, convened by the Prime Minister. There is stability in government appointments presented there. For officials summoned to confirm appointments, for members of that Committee to tweet the answers given, or to post them to personal accounts, is a serious wrongdoing. There must be inquiries against them. As the Justice Minister said, to ask Parliament to disclose such matters is another conspiracy—to force the release of ongoing sensitive investigations. Therefore, Hon. Deputy Speaker, your attention is required. MPs must study the duties of such committees further. Especially in a committee like the Committee on High Posts, members should not publish on social media the answers given by officials. Please give directions to stop this practice.

¶ 02 (Interruption)

¶ 03 That is exactly what you should say, Hon. Member. This is wrong and must be corrected. Your suggestion was to go tell the media. That is not what should be done today. That Member should be brought before the Committee on High Posts and warned; if necessary, removed from the Committee. This is a serious, sensitive matter.

¶ 04 Hon. Deputy Speaker, the Adjournment Motion brought by the Opposition today is about our government’s path over the past year. Some Opposition members spoke about the role of the Opposition—criticising the government. That is fine. As the Government, we will state what we have done and what we are going to do—the work we have done from where the country was to here, the progress achieved, and the rights and benefits people are enjoying. The Opposition may see it as a “dot” or as a “1” in a way that suits them. But as a government, we must set out these matters.

¶ 05 Next, they asked what has been done about fraud and corruption; some institutions had not been audited and had not even prepared accounts. We are fixing that. For example, under my Ministry, Lanka Sathosa had not prepared accounts for four years. We have now completed them. The Co-operative Wholesale Establishment had been closed and could not even be wound up properly due to lack of accounts; we are now completing them and reestablishing such institutions. Some claimed state institutions make losses and are inactive; no—some had cooked accounts. We are restoring the State and strengthening state machinery, for which the public service is vital.

¶ 06 When the public service is important, every public officer from top to bottom is important. Therefore, we worked to improve their satisfaction. First, public servants expected a salary increase. We have implemented that. Across 2025, 2026 and 2027 we have allocated around Rs. 330 billion for public sector salary increases. For this year alone, we have allocated about Rs. 310 billion. Next year also allocations have been made. The Opposition says we did not increase public sector salaries, citing some document; but it was the Government itself that considered this. Since 2016, public sector salary structures were not revised. We revised them and raised the minimum salary to Rs. 40,000, and with the cost-of-living allowance to Rs. 57,800. We revised pensions, increments and the private sector wages too. This is a government that considered working people. Today, are there protests demanding salary hikes? No.

¶ 07 There was an issue of estate workers’ wages. We are still discussing raising their daily wage to Rs. 1,700—from the current agreement of Rs. 1,350 plus Rs. 350 based on kilo rate, with possibilities varying, but at least an 80 per cent possibility to achieve Rs. 1,700. If discussions fail, we are looking at what else can be done. This is a government working with people in mind. We did within this year many things never done before. The Opposition forgets that public sector pensions were stopped in 2016. Recruitment was also halted then.

¶ 08 (Interruption)

¶ 09 Who stopped it? Not us. In 2016 public sector pensions were stopped; recruitment was halted.

¶ 10 Hon. Deputy Speaker, regarding recruitment: when we came to power there were 280,000 vacancies in the public service. We cannot fill them all at once. The President said we plan to recruit 30,000 graduates this year, with budgetary provision. We began obtaining necessary approvals. The Prime Minister stated that Cabinet has now approved recruitment of 65,000 to the public service and other services.

¶ 11 They also talked about prices. When discussing cost of living, we look at the Colombo Consumer Price Index and the National Consumer Price Index. I will present data from September 2024 to September 2025. There has been a significant reduction in prices of about 40 categories of goods—over 20 per cent in some, even 40 per cent in some. Around 15 categories saw increases of about 9 per cent. These 60 items are the most-sold items at Lanka Sathosa. People have felt the reductions.

¶ 12 Today, yams are Rs. 250/kg; big onions Rs. 150/kg; red onions Rs. 295/kg. We procure together with the private sector. Through Sathosa we sell rice at Rs. 230/kg. We are strengthening the state retail system and internal processes. While we do this, they say state institutions are weak and ask about Provincial Council elections. Provincial Councils have been inactive for years. The Government now proposes to hold those elections next year. Minister Wijitha Herath even said so at the UNHRC in Geneva. Though PCs were inactive, local authorities have resumed work for three months—fixing village roads, drains, preschools, cemeteries—bringing villages back to life. With village economies reactivated, the World Bank says Sri Lanka is among the fastest to recover among 82 countries with weak economies. Our economy is strengthening.

¶ 13 They say e-tenders are not yet implemented. One of our main aims is poverty eradication; another is digitalization. Bringing the state machinery into digitalization requires reorganization, training and equipment—a major effort. Tender procedures can be complex when public and private sectors compete. Recently, there was talk on rice, coal, buses, fuel tenders. We have acted according to government tender procedures; none outside procedure. In rice, the issue is not due to anything else. Consumers need four main rice types: Nadu, Kekulu, Samba, and Keeri Samba. Samba and Keeri Samba account for about 18 per cent of consumption, but production is less than 16 per cent—about a 4 per cent shortfall. Using that gap, some large millers and stockists manipulate the market. The answer is to increase cultivation of Keeri Samba and Samba through the Agriculture Ministry, including large-scale cultivation. As a short-term measure, we may import a certain quantity of Keeri Samba—a consumer-preferred variety—to bridge the gap. Not because of a national shortage—national requirement is 2.7 million metric tons while production is 3.4 million metric tons—but because of a varietal preference gap.