Vote on Account includes public sector pay rise

Irangika Range and Sandasen Marasinghe

Finance and State Revenue Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told Parliament yesterday that the Vote on Account (VoA) being debated in Parliament contains the funds and allocations needed for the salary increments that the Government had pledged for public sector employees to be granted from January next year.

The Government moved the VoA for giving opportunity for the newly elected Government to present its fresh budget, he said.

The Opposition is today searching for new slogans to cover up their failure. It has become a hapless opposition since these slogans and allegations which it used to attack the government have already proved false.

A huge amount of money had already been allocated for a number of development and livelihood projects. "We have not cut off even a cent which has been allocated for granting relief to the people," he added.

Sufficient money has been allocated to provide the fertilizer subsidy and allocations for Samurdhi, free school uniforms and text books.

We have been able to bring down the unemployment rate from 14 percent to 5 percent despite the strong challenges poised by terrorism and the global economic down turn.

Meanwhile, arraignments have been made to provide jobs to unemployed graduates through the VoA. 'We did not present the VoA bowing down to any condition forced by the IMF,' he said.

He said that sufficient allocations have been made for the next four months to continue and initiate development activities and provide welfare facilities for the public.

The Minister said expenditures of President Mahinda Rajapaksa have not been increased through the VoA which is being debated now.