The second phase of the government’s pension revision programme will be implemented in July, Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Professor Chandana Abeyratne said, with the first phase nearing completion.
Minister Abeyratne said 98% of payments under Phase I have already been disbursed, NewsFirst reported. Of 463,000 individuals registered in the Department of Pensions system, payments have been made to 429,000 pensioners.
The minister said approximately 2,500 new pension recipients are added to the system every month, underscoring the rising recurrent fiscal load from public-sector retirees.
An online platform operated through Divisional Secretariat offices is being used to speed up the pension payment process, the minister said. Data on roughly 397,154 pension recipients has already been automated through this system.
The Phase II rollout is the next milestone in a long-running effort to correct salary and pension anomalies inherited from successive cycles of public-sector wage adjustments. Pensioners had previously protested at Galle Face in April 2025 over budget anomalies, and war veterans’ families were brought into the revised pension framework earlier this week under a separate Defence Ministry track.
A separate Yala-season pension benefit programme for tea estate workers was also launched on 13 May.
Source: NewsFirst.
