MPs emolument plans dropped

Thursday, 24 March 2016 00:40 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Party Leaders who met Speaker Karu Jayasuriya last evening have agreed to drop salary and other benefit increases the Government had offered for all parliamentarians.

Citing prevailing economic troubles in the country Speaker Jayasuriya has requested Party Leaders to take this crucial decision for public betterment. The decision reached last evening will be conveyed to the Government and MPs who have housing issues in Colombo will soon receive suitable accommodation facilities as per the discussion.

The proposed increases which were turned down yesterday included a Rs.50,000/-monthly allowance for all MPs who are unable to get a house from the Madiwela quarters. Even though, telephone bills up to Rs.40,000/- are reimbursed at present, wi-fi and internet facilities have not been given to the MPs. The proposal was to pay an additional allowance of Rs.10,000/- in place of all these services. In addition a sum of Rs.75,000/-was proposed as the allowance for maintaining an office after taking the maintenance cost of the building, office equipment and other factors into consideration.

On par with the proposals which were rejected yesterday, Members will receive the allowance for the meetings of the Constitutional Assembly and meetings of Sectoral Committees only if they participate in such meetings on non-sitting days. As members have to incur additional expenses to travel to the Parliament complex in order to attend such meetings on non-sitting days, it has been proposed that each participating member be paid an allowance of Rs.4,000/-, while a Chairperson will be paid an allowance of Rs.5,000/- per meeting.

It was also proposed that each member be paid an allowance of Rs.2,500/- for participating in sittings of the Parliament as a Constitutional Assembly on non-sitting days for the purpose of acting as a legislative assembly. Although there have been reports regarding provision of special meals, the recommendation of the Committee was to provide a tasty, low-cost meal instead of providing a variety of food items and curries.