The Pensions Department has settled Rs.3 billion from June to August as pension gratuity due to the public sector employees who retired from service, Director General of Pensions Jagath D. Dias said.
According to him, the department had Rs.17 billion to pay as gratuity arrears by June this year and paid Rs.3 billion by the end of August. Currently the due amount remains at Rs.16 billion after accumulating it till today.
He also said the pensions department has paid Rs.11.3 billion as gratuity allowances from January 1 to August 31 this year.The total number of pensioners received their gratuity payments so far this year is 10,525, he said.
Cabinet approval was given to settle the unpaid pension gratuity of retired public servants, the Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government Ministry announced yesterday.
The Cabinet Paper in this regard was presented by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena in his capacity as the subject Minister. The pension gratuity due for retiring public servants had not been paid since 2021 due the economic instability in the country. The pensioners were under stress due to this situation and their grievances were presented to the Ministry. Accordingly, the Cabinet approved to disburse the required money to the Pensions Department before the end of October to settle the pension gratuity for 2021. The money required to settle the pension gratuity for 2022 will be disbursed within another six months. Cabinet also approved to appoint a seven-member committee to recommend proposals to streamline the process of paying pension gratuity.
The Committee will be headed by a Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and a senior official of the Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies Ministry will be its Secretary.
Add new comment