CBK to get enhanced pension

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tabled a resolution in Parliament to provide a pension to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga equal with the entitlement enjoyed by her successor Mahinda Rajapaksa. The resolution placed on the Order Paper yesterday sought to revise the monthly pension entitlement of former President Kumaratunga from Rs.25,000 to Rs.97,500 to make it equal to the pension paid to former President Rajapaksa.

The resolution was tabled in terms of Paragraph (1) Article 36 of the Constitution which gives Parliament the power to introduce a resolution to determine the salary, allowances and pension entitlements of Presidents.

Parliament determined by a resolution on March 4, 1986 states that the pension entitlement of a President shall be a sum equivalent to the salary the President was entitled to immediately before he ceased to hold such office.

Accordingly, from 1988, pensions paid to former Presidents J. R. Jayewardene and D. B. Wijethunga, Ms. Hema Premadasa, widow of former President R. Premadasa and to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga were Rs.25,000 per month.

Despite salary revisions, only the pension paid to former President Kumaratunga had not been revised in keeping with the circular.