Minister Bandula Gunawardena has been continuously targeting public servants and pensioners and coming out with various details to point out that they are a burden on the economy.
Today (19th), another news related to this has been published in Dinamina newspaper with the headline, “Tax income is over and done with once government employees and pensioners are paid – it is necessary to find out how to get the rest of the work done”. Minister Bandula Gunawardena has emphasized that tax revenue of Rs. 1,751 billion was received in 2022, and Rs. 1,265 billion was spent to pay government employees’ salaries and pensioners.
However, Minister Bandula Gunawardena is careful not to refrain from saying anything about the spending of public wealth to provide large amounts of privileges for former presidents and their dependents and to mention that Members of Parliament get all privileges, including pensions, after completing a 5-year term.
This kind of data is presented, and the Rajapakse gang and other groups led by Ranil Wickramasinghe have joined together and forgotten the looting of state revenues and looting by taking huge loans. A massive amount of interest has to be paid for these loans. In the first four months of this year, Rs. 409230 million was spent to pay government employees’ salaries and pensions, but Rs. 818970 million was spent only to pay interest for the loans. The government’s total revenue for that period was Rs. 820070 million.
