Treasury not decided on an accepted value for the CoL index - Lokuge

Labor Minister of Sri Lanka Gamini Lokuge says the Treasury is still in the process of finalizing an accepted value for the cost of living (CoL) index and that it would be announced in about one and a half months.

Lokuge made this statement when asked about the concerns raised by private sector trade unions on the government’s failure to gazette the value of the CoL index after the Census and Statistics Department had finalized the process in July this year.

The Census and Statistics Department in July this year said the latest calculation of the CoL index with 2006/2007 as the base year has found the value of each index point to be 280. Therefore, the value of each index point stands at Rs. 280.

However, Lokuge said that the government would not gazette the exact value of 280 for each CoL index point.

He explained that the CoL value has so far been gazetted twice - once when the CoL point was valued at Rs. 2 and later at Rs. 65.

He added that the Rs. 65 was announced, as the accepted amount when the real amount was Rs. 180.

“The CoL unit is now said to be Rs. 280 and the Treasury like in the previous occasion has to decide on an accepted value that would be published. The private sector companies could then make the payments according to the new value,” he said.

Lokuge says that the private sector companies would not be able to carry out its operations if they are expected to pay Rs. 280 for each increasing unit of the CoL index to every employee.

Sri Lanka’s National Trade Union Center (NTUC) says delay in gazetting the new CoL Index has resulted in companies, especially the private sector, paying employees a lower amount as monthly CoL payments. (Colombo Page)