Rs.2,500 more for private sector employees from May 2015

The salary increase for private sector employees will come into effect from May 2015 with the employers having to pay the salary as arrears in January if they had failed to abide by the government’s request to increase the monthly salaries of their employees by Rs.2,500, Labour and Trade Union Relations Minister John Seneviratne said yesterday.

He said the Rs.2,500 salary increase for private sector employees would be legalized from January 2016 and the relevant Act would be presented in Parliament in January.

The minister said the SLFP in a cordial and friendly dialogue with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was able to whittle down the effects of several unpopular budget proposals.

He told the media yesterday that the 2016 Budget had many people-friendly proposals as well as some proposals which were bound to have negative effects on the people.

“The Rs.2.5 million tax on electric cars is one of them. We were able to convince the Finance Minister and he agreed to reconsider the suitability of imposing this tax. Likewise, the government will not remove the Concessionary Vehicle Permit (CVP) to senior public servants. It will be issued once in ten years instead of once in five years,” the minister said.

He said the EPF and the ETF would not be merged or administered by a separate unit and instead, a streamlined system of management and control would be introduced to administer the two funds which has a combined fund of Rs.1.6 trillion, the largest in south Asia.

“The loss-making plantation companies managing between 15,000 and 20,000 acres will be formed into small scale estates consisting of 4,000 to 5,000 acres for easy management while government assistance will be on offer to make them profit-making ventures,” he said.

All those who have been living in houses leased out to them by the government or local government bodies for more than 10 years will be issued with title deeds and 1,000 dialysis units will be set up at Hospitals countrywide to treat kidney patients.