State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe has emphasised that the public should refrain from unnecessarily worrying about the recent revelations made pertaining to the payment of government employees funds, pensions and the Samurdhi allowances.

Taking to Twitter, Semasinghe assured that priority is being given to the payment of the salaries of public servants, pensions and other welfare benefit schemes, such as the Samurdhi allowances.

“There shouldn’t be any undue fear about this”, the State Minister said, assuring that a required programme to overcome the ongoing crisis is currently underway.

“Even though the country’s economy is at a stable level we have not yet come out of the crisis completely. Required programme to overcome the crisis is currently underway. All mandatory & essential payments are being done by managing government revenue and expenditure”,  Semasinghe said in this regard.

He also noted that the government is implementing a systematic plan to settle the overdue bills, with the consultation of the relevant ministries.

Earlier today (10 Jan.), Cabinet Spokesman warned that owing to Sri Lanka’s depleting Treasury funds, the payment of government salaries, pensions and welfare schemes has proved difficult.

He noted that as the income earned by the government through taxes for the first few months of 2023  will  be drastically low due to the economic crisis that grasped the island nation last year, payments of the Samurdhi allowances, too, are likely to be delayed by nearly two weeks.

Moreover, 5% of the funds appropriated for proposals submitted by all Ministries in the 2023 Budget will be slashed, as per President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s instructions, Gunawardena added.