AKD reveals the privileges of new State Ministers

Revealing the privileges granted to Ministers and State Ministers, National People’s Power (NPP) Leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayaka claimed that President Ranil Wickramasinghe is repaying his debt to former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and the 134 MPs who voted for him to become President, pointing out that he was not appointed by a people’s mandate.

“Ranil Wickremesinghe is currently repaying his debt to the 134 MPs who voted for him. His presidency is also a loan from Basil Rajapaksa as he is not a President appointed by the people’s mandate,” said Dissanayaka addressing the media last Saturday (10).

He stated that the current Government is prioritising their personal gain over the basic needs of the general public, as their duty to solve the problems faced by the people is being overrun by their race to gain ministerial posts. 

“Ranil’s Government has now appointed 37 State Ministers and also before long, more Cabinet Ministers will be sworn-in. The country is in a state where the general public is suppressed by economic hardships with the prices of milk powder, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel, electricity, and water increased. A government should prioritise solving the problem of the people but instead, the current Government is trying to elevate their privileges. During the ruling party meetings recently, the MPs continuously called for Deputy Minister posts, State Minister posts, and chairperson posts of district steering committees, for themselves.”

Elucidating recent contradictory statements from Ministers, he explained the numerous privileges granted to Ministers and State Ministers alike, pointing out that the only difference between them would be that only Ministers are a part of the Cabinet.

“We saw Ministers claiming not to be taking their salaries, but it is completely irrelevant for State Ministers. A circular was released by the past Ranil Wickremesinghe Government on 19 April 2016 which states that the privileges granted to Ministers will be applicable to State Ministers in the same manner. Actually, the only difference between them is that State Ministers are not included in the Cabinet.”

Listing the privileges the State Ministers are afforded, the leader of the JVP stated that among the privileges were three official vehicles, including their monthly fuel quotas. Six hundred litres are provided for petrol vehicles in the Western Province, and for vehicles operating outside the Western Province, an allocation of 750 litres. For diesel vehicles in the Western Province, 300 litres are allocated and for vehicles outside the province, 600 litres are provided. He stated that these allocations are only for one vehicle and showed the enormity of the allocation for three vehicles and the Government expenditure for this.

“For three petrol vehicles, (750 times three) 2,250 litres incur a cost of Rs. 1,012,500. For three diesel vehicles, these State Ministers will get 1,800 litres of diesel, which will cost around Rs. 778,000. Will these new State Ministers get such a large privilege for fuel? 

“Not only that, but they will also receive telephones; two for the office, two for the residence, and one mobile phone with bills paid amounting to almost Rs. 40,000, with these bills being calculated excluding taxes and other fixed charges which were recently increased. The fuel quota for the Ministers, too, has an interjection stating that the payment for fuel for Ministers will be provided as a monthly allowance which will be updated at the beginning of each month according to fuel price updates. 

“They will also receive housing in Colombo and if they are not able to receive that, they will be given a monthly allowance of Rs. 100,000 for housing instead,” he said.

Moreover, he stated that Ministers would receive a staff of 15 members with five of them receiving official telephones with bills paid excluding both taxes and fixed charges, as earlier. Furthermore, he revealed that a Minister would get eight officers for their personal security with two officers allocated for MPs.

Dissanayaka concluded that this is the political culture that is to be blamed for the current economic downfall of the country. He charged that national resources are being spooned from the Treasury according to the likings of the President, with the Ministers being “served with a backhoe” while the general public is “served with an ear-pick”.