Pension allocations to top Rs. 49 billion

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

PENSION PAYMENTS: The Department of Pensions expects that total amount in pension payments will exceed Rs. 49 billion this year.

However the Department is still in the process of estimating the total funds needed for this year.

After estimating the total funds, the Department will submit their estimate to the Treasury.

Director, Department of Pensions K.A. Thilakarathne said in 2005 the Government paid Rs. 47 billion as pensions and it was 11.43% of the total Government income. In 2004 it was recorded as Rs. 36.1 billion.

He predicts that this year total amount to be paid as pensions might be 12% from the total Government earnings.

"However there is a significant growth in the amount of pensions that needs to be paid this year. This is mainly due to the increase of retired people. Pension schemes depend on the salaries and when salaries increase their pensions will also increase.

There were some increases in the salaries of the public sector and it resulted in increase in the pension of public servants," he said.

"Though sometimes the pensioner expired, the department needs to pay the pension for his or her dependent for a considerable period of time and this segment has also increased," he said. At present the department is paying over Rs. 4,500 million as pensions a month.

The Department is paying pensions for five segments such as civil, widowers and the forces. The highest amount of pensions is paid for the civil sector. There are nearly 275,000 retired civil servants who obtain pensions and nearly 110,000 widowers obtain pensions.

According to the Department of Pensions statistics by end of 2005 418,923 pensioners obtained pensions from the Government. 22,494 were registered for pensions in 2005.

In 2004 there were 411,427 pensioners and compared with 2005 it is a 1.82% growth.