Financial struggles plague university academics as taxation woes spark exodus

By Rathindra Kuruwita

About two percent of university academics see their entire salary deducted due to PAYE tax and higher interest rates, Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) media spokesman, Senior Lecturer Charudatta Ilangasinghe, told The Island.

There are many others who only receive about 1,500 rupees as salaries, he said.

“How will they survive? Most of such people leave, and even if they stay, they are under tremendous pressure. How can they carry out their duties as academics?” he asked.

Ilangasinghe said that about 800 academics have left the country, and the teacher-student ratio has increased.

“Sometimes, we only teach a percentage of students. We ask the others to stay home. There are no provisions to address the shortages in many science laboratories. The quality of education has dropped. We will only see the results in a few years. We need to develop our human capital to come out of this crisis. However, we are doing the opposite,” he said.

Ilangasinghe added that the future generation will judge this government harshly. He added that the government is playing around with numbers to convince people that the economy has stabilized.

“However, everyone is feeling the pressure, which is increasing. In 2024, things will get worse. In a survey in January 2023, about 26 percent of the academics were of the opinion that they would leave the country within the next two years. About 10 percent have left by December 2023.

He said that the government promised to give a tax concession to professionals after the first review under the IMF agreement. However, the government went back on its word, although the IMF approved the second tranche of the finance package.

“A lot of professionals tried to weather 2023, expecting things to change in 2024. But now we know that 2024 is going to be worse. Most professionals, who can, will leave in 2024, and many sectors will collapse. This is especially the case in academia,” he went on to say.