By Saman Indrajith

Former Governor to the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal increased his salary from Rs 150,000 to Rs 400,000 per month and made adjustments to make the monthly pension for that post and took away with him some seven million rupees as salary arrears by backdating the stipulation introduced by him, parliament was told last Tuesday.

Puttalam District SJB MP Niroshan Perera alleged that Cabraal had obtained seven million rupees as arrears to his salary by backdating the increment of monthly salary for the Central Bank governor’s post and demanded to know whether the government would stop paying the pension to Cabraal whose name was among the officials found responsible for the collapse of the national economy by the Supreme Court.

“I have a question about former governors of the Central Bank. The police are still on the lookout for Arjuna Mahendran. There are charges against W.D. Lakshman and Ajith Nivard Cabraal for ruining the national economy. We have been informed that Ajith Nivard Cabraal introduced a new salary scheme by increasing the amount of salary for the post of Governor from Rs 150,000 to Rs 400,000. He also introduced a new pension scheme where a retired governor would get 74 percent of the monthly salary that he was receiving at the time of retirement. It is said that he had obtained a sum of Rs 7 million as pension arrears. Now there is a Supreme Court ruling against him. We want to know whether the government would continue to pay their pensions,” Perera said.

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe called on the MP to submit his query in the form of a formal question so that the government would give a detailed answer after making necessary inquiries.