Over 133 billion held depriving 12,000 pensioners their payments!

The Ministry of Public Services, Local Government and Provincial Councils has informed the Cabinet that 12,843 retirees have been severely affected by the non-payment of pension gratuity due on the retirement of public servants during the past three years.

As per the notification given to the Cabinet by the Minister in charge of the subject Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, the amount of pension gratuity which has not been paid for 3 years is Rs. 133.14 billion. (Thirteen thousand three hundred and fourteen million rupees.)

On average, between 2,500 and 3,000 public servants retire from public service each month. The monthly pension gratuity for them is Rs. 3 billion.

But the government estimates that the payment of pension gratuities will reduce by about 50% as the retirement age for public servants has been raised to 65 from this year.

It is reported that any public servant is entitled to receive a pension gratuity of twenty-four times the pension normally received when a public servant retires.