Public servants salaries increased, Railway salary anomalies removed from January: Finance Ministry

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama   

The government had decided to remove the salary anomalies of the Railways service while increasing the monthly salary of all Public Servants by a minimum amount of Rs.3,000 and a maximum of Rs.24,000 with effective from January 2020, the Finance Ministry said.   

The decision was taken as per the recommendation of the Special Commission on reviewing salaries of the public sector appointed by 
the President.   

The Ministry said the salary anomalies that were reported to be in certain public sector organisations inclusive of the Railway and the Postal services would be removed.   
The monthly salary of all Public Servants would be increased by a minimum amount of Rs.3,000 and a maximum of Rs.24,000 per month effective from January 2020, the Finance Ministry said.   

“The new salary scale in the railway department with an initial monthly salary of Rs.36,095 has been created for Railway Supervisory Management Service. The Salary scale MT-1 would be placed under the initial salary step of Rs.34,415 for Railway Engine Driver Aide,” the Ministry said.   

Therefore, Railway workers would not need to continue the ongoing trade union action demanding a solution to their salary anomalies, they said.   

As per the earlier salary proposals under PA Circular 3/2006, the minimum basic salary of a Primary Level Public Servant would be increased to Rs.24,250 by 2020 from Rs.11,730 in 2015.   

Under the recommendations of the Ranugge Salary Commission, this will be further increased by Rs.3,000 to Rs.27,250 per month.   
Comparing to this salary increment, the Overtime Allowance for nearly 1.1 million public servants will also be increased. 

 
Also, as all these salary increments are added to the basic salary, all employees in the Public Sector will be privileged to claim a higher amount of Disaster loans and Property loans as these are calculated based on the basic salary.   

Rs.562 billion was paid as Public Sector Salaries in 2015 and, it has increased up to Rs.750 billion to date. Payment of pension which cost Rs.157 billion in 2015 has now increased up to Rs.225 billion. The government has decided to pay this increased new salary in two equal installments from January 2020 and January 2021. It will cost an additional amount of Rs.120 billion per year.   

The monthly salary of all Public Servants would be increased by a minimum amount of Rs.3,000 and a maximum of Rs.24,000 per month effective from January 2020, the Finance Ministry said