Trade unions claim Govt. cutting recurrent costs

Trade unions say that the government has taken steps to cut all the public employees’ allowances except salaries severely burdening the public employees with a financial crisis.

Trade unions say that the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Dr. P.B. Jayasundara has instructed the secretaries of the Ministries to be extremely thrifty at a meeting held on December 11 at the Ministry of Finance.

According to reports, the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance has instructed the Ministry secretaries to pay only the salaries of the public employees and slash the other recurrent costs like overtime, extra allowances and fuel allowance. According to the trade unions the government has taken this step due to the increase of overdraft of the state current accounts over Rs. 200 billion.

The heads of the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank have warned the government regarding the phenomenon, trade unions said.