Jan 23, Colombo: State Minister of Finance Dr. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says that out of the 93 billion rupees needed to pay government employee salaries, 87 billion rupees have already been allocated for the payment of salaries on time.

The Minister claims that according to this, public servants can be paid as scheduled on January 25th.

The Minister mentions that the salary of the executive officers will be given on the same day or with a delay of one day.

The government’s expected revenue in January is 145 billion rupees and the Customs and Excise Department has already said that its monthly revenue target will fall short by about 10 billion rupees.

The total expenditure of the government in January is estimated at 625 billion rupees and the minister states that there is a deficit of 480 billion rupees despite the revenue scheduled.