Sri Lanka : No more state bungalows to ministers, duty free vehicles & pension scrapped for MPs

The government has also identified 344 luxury vehicles used by former ministers and presidents to auctioned or repurpose

In its move for the curtailment of benefits for parliamentarian in keeping with the election manifesto, the government has decided not to assign state bungalows to ministers, a Minister said yesterday.

Besides, duty – free vehicle permits granted every five- year period to MPs will also be scrapped.Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala who is also in charge of parliamentary affairs told Daily Mirror yesterday that the government would decide what was to be done with state bungalows assigned to the ministers who served in the previous governments.

“We will not assign these houses to any Minister of the current government, ” he said.

The Minister said that the MPs across the divide would be provided with cost- effective vehicles by the government instead of permits for the importation of vehicles without duty.

“We will not issue duty free vehicle permits to MPs. They will be given cost-effective, fuel-efficient vehicles, ” he said.

In the past there were widespread allegations about parliamentarians abusing their duty free vehicle permits for monetary gains. Permits were transferred to others for hefty sums to import luxury vehicles without any import duty involved.

In addition, the government has decided to scrap pension benefits to MPs from this time onwards.

The government has also identified 344 luxury vehicles used by former ministers and presidents to auctioned or repurposed.

He said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake would present a Cabinet paper seeking approval to auction some of these vehicles.”These are luxury vehicles including V8 vehicles,” he said.