Rs. 5,000 allowance for low-income families for festive season

Minister Gamini Lokuge says that the Cabinet of Ministers decided to pay a special allowance of Rs. 5,000 to low-income earning families for two months for the festive season. 

Speaking to reporters following the weekly Cabinet meeting today (28), he said that 3.1 million identified low-income families will receive this allowance. 

Responding to a question, he said that it will be provided as a bonus for the upcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year and that close 3.1 million families are estimated to receive this. 

When asked whether the government has sufficient funds for this, he said that there are funds and that they would not be able to provide this if there was no moneys.