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Sunday October 1st, 2023

Sri Lanka tax payer to bear unemployable graduates burden from March

ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka will start recruiting unemployable graduates to the state service from March 01, though how many will be recruited this year has not been revealed.

“We will start giving these jobs before March 01,” State Minister for Development Banking Shehan Semasinghe said.

“It is the intention of the President and Prime Minister to give state jobs to unemployed graduates.”

Critics say unemployed graduates represent a crisis in the tax-payer funded university education system where degrees are given which have no quality to be useful to productive sectors or the society.

However some state universities including the Moratuwa University, produce graduates that are useful to productive sectors and contribute to society, instead of using tax-payer money to get salaries and pensions.

Sri Lanka’s current administration has also promised 100,000 jobs to those who have weak education qualifications and come from poor families.

They would be paid 30,000 rupees each, officials had said costing about 36 billion rupees a year, when all were employed.

Sri Lanka’s last administration also promised high salaries going up to 600,000 rupees for senior state workers, but that increment has not yet been granted. The hike was expected to cost 50 billion rupees a year.

The last administration while giving a 10,000 rupee salary hike to state workers, also increased their pensionable salary, which had been kept under limits until 2015.

From 2014 to 2018 Sri Lanka increased the taxes collected from the people by 715 billion rupees to 1910 billion rupee and the salary and pension was raised to 820 billion rupees from 567 billion rupees or 44 percent not counting tax free cars and other benefits.

The current administration has slashed value added taxes. (Colombo/Jan21/2020)

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  1. Sandy says:

    The future of the country looks bleak, what with these unemployable graduates becoming future stool warmers in the government sector.

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  1. Sandy says:

    The future of the country looks bleak, what with these unemployable graduates becoming future stool warmers in the government sector.

Sri Lanka National Christian Council opposes Online Safety Bill

ECONOMYNEXT – The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) in a statement on the Online Safety Bill, said that the existing legal regime is adequate to deal with instances of harmful speech, making it unjustifiable to enact such “stringent laws”.

The Council called upon the government to withdraw the bill immediately.

The body expressed “deep concern” over the proposed bill, detailing its potential to curtail freedom of speech and how, according to the Council, the piece of legislature is inconsistent with the principles of democracy.

“The bill proposes the establishment of an entity named the Online Safety Commission without provisions to guarantee its independence and impartiality,” the statement said.

Chapter 3 imposes restrictions on online communication of certain statements, many of which are vague and overbroad, leaving room for executive control and the curtailing of legitimate criticism and dissent that are basic features of democracy, the statement said.

“The laws granting wide discretion to the executive and its investigative agencies with expansive reach have been misused in the past.”

The Council said that the bill was not drafted with the process of public consultation and discussion, which might have ensured the bill would be less draconian in nature.

“The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka calls upon the government to withdraw this anti-human rights and anti-democratic bill immediately.” (Colombo/Sep30/2023)

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Sri Lanka to implement new vehicle revenue licence issuing system

ECONOMYNEXT – A new system of issuing vehicle licences called eRL 2.0 is to be implemented in 5 provinces, excluding the Western Province, from 3 October onwards.

The new system is to be implemented beginning in the North West, South, North Central, Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces, respectively. The existing vehicle licence issuing system eRL 1.0 will continue to be used in the Western Province.

The issuing of revenue licences islandwide at Department of Motor Traffic head offices and regional branches will be temporarily halted on October 2.

The facility of obtaining vehicle permits online will also be temporarily halted on 6 October till midnight.

The Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and the Provincial Motor Traffic Departments are working to modernize the current vehicle revenue license issuance system.

The implementation of the new eRL 2.0 system is expected to be an important step in the digitalisation of Sri Lanka. (Colombo/Sep30/2023)

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Sri Lankan Airlines flights cancelled as aircraft grounded

ECONOMYNEXT – State-run SriLankan Airlines has apologized to passengers who were stranded as multiple aircraft were grounded at the same time.

The airline said it has strict procedures which requires aircraft to be grounded when technical issues are discovered.

“Unfortunately, in this case we suffered a number of groundings at the same time,” the airline said.

“We apologize for the disruption and inconvenience caused and assure all our loyal customers that we are working diligently to minimize such occurrences moving forward.”

The airline said it was booking passengers on other airlines while some have been accommodated at hotels. (Colombo/Sept30/2023)

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