2020 heralds salary boon for public servants

• New salary structure introduced by previous Govt. effective from this month
• Minimum increase per month Rs. 3,000, maximum Rs. 24,000; to cost Treasury Rs. 120 b
• Salary increment will also remove anomalies in Railways, Postal Services

The monthly salary of all public servants will increase by a minimum amount of Rs. 3,000 and a maximum of Rs. 24,000 per month, effective from January 2020, according to a salary structure put in place by the previous Government.

This salary increment will amount to a 107% increase by 2020, compared to the basic salaries that were in place in 2015.

The enhanced salary structure was announced last September by the then-Government and is based on the recommendation of the Special Commission on reviewing salaries of the public sector appointed by former President Maithripala Sirisena.

This salary increment will also remove salary anomalies that existed in different sectors of the Public Service, including the Railway and Postal Services, which had engaged in trade union action for many months to have the anomalies removed.

In order to remove the anomalies in the Railway Department, a new salary scale with an initial monthly salary of Rs 36,095 was created for Railway Supervisory Management Service.

With the new salary increase, the minimum basic salary of a primary level public servant will be increased to Rs. 27,250 per month by 2020 from Rs. 11,730 in 2015.

Along with this salary increment, the Over-Time Allowance for nearly 1.1 million public servants will also be increased.

The Government spent Rs. 562 billion on public sector salaries in 2015 and it has increased up to Rs. 750 billion by 2019.

Pension payments, which cost Rs. 157 billion in 2015, have now increased up to Rs. 225 billion.

The increased new salary will be paid in two equal instalments from January 2020 and January 2021.

This is expected to cost State coffers an additional amount of Rs. 120 billion per year.