Cheaper phone calls soon for public servants, pensioners

by L. S. A. WEDAARACHCHI

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The government has decided to offer concessions to public servants and pensioners due to the rising cost-of-living.

Minister of Trade, Marketing Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs, Bandula Gunawardena said that concessions will be provided on telephone charges for public servants and pensioners and that it will be made known by the end of this month.

He said that under the package which will be a joint project of the Sri Lanka Trading (General) Corporation (STC), Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel, the monthly total telephone bill will not exceed Rs. 300.

“There are 16.5 million public servants and pensioners of which twelve million are public servants. The government’s annual salary and pension bill amounts to Rs. 306 billion which is 50 per cent of the State’s annual income.

This concession will be given to them, since any salary increase would result in inflation, he said.

He said that more concessions will be provided to public servants in the near future through government institutions and corporations.