President assures payment of all government salaries

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has assured that although it is not possible to pay the salaries of all public servants in one day, the due payments will be made over the span of a few days.

“Even though we are unable to pay all government wages in a day, we will make these payments across two or three days”, Wickremesinghe said in Parliament this morning (17 Jan.), adding that the payment of pensions and Samurdhi allowances have been allocated as the government’s second and third priorities, respectively.
  
He further noted that Sri Lanka’s economy appears to be heading in the right direction, as opposed to its state over the last few months. 

“We are currently working towards bettering our economy, and all that is left now for us is to come to an agreement with India and China. Negotiations in this regard are underway, which have been successful thus far”, the Head of State said with regard to Sri Lanka’s bilateral creditors.

Meanwhile, earlier today, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal tabled by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policy, to pay the monthly salaries of non-executive government employees on stipulated dates and salaries of executive level employees a few days later based on government revenue for a few months from January.