Bulk of December govt. salaries paid with Rs 10.5 bn profit earned by Agrarian Development Dept

By Ifham Nizam

The government paid the majority of the public servants their last salary –December- from Rs. 10.5 bn profit of the Department of Agrarian Development, a top official of the Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation yesterday said.

Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that the Department had earned Rs. 10.05 billion by selling urea fertiliser and other fertilisers in the last Yala season and this year’s Maha season.

The money was sent to the Treasury and last December the government had to use a part of that money to pay the due salaries of government employees, he said

The minister revealed these facts during a discussion held at the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday at a review meeting on the agricultural projects carried out using the funds allocated from the 2023 budget.

Although the government made certain financial allocations for the activities of the ministries in the last interim budget, it was not possible to provide the entire amount of money due to the economic crisis in the country, he said

He also said that although Rs. 115 billion has been allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture for the year 2023, due to the economic crisis, it has been decided to cut five percent of the allocation to be given to each ministry, so the allocation of funds for certain projects may decrease.

The Minister also said that since the paddy harvesting of this Maha season will start in some areas by the end of next week, the Paddy Marketing Board will need around 10 billion rupees to buy paddy.

The Ministry has submitted a Cabinet paper requesting for the relevant money, and that the Cabinet paper will be presented next week.