By Shamindra Ferdinando

Gevindu Cumaratunga, MP, has sought Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s intervention to ensure State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe on behalf of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who holds the Finance portfolio, provided a satisfactory answer to several queries he raised regarding the status of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as at 31 Dec., 2022.

In a letter dated February 28, 2024, addressed to Premier Gunawardena, who is also the leader of the government Parliamentary group, the dissident SLPP lawmaker said that though State Minister Semasinghe was to answer his queries on EPF on Dec 12, 2024, he didn’t do so.

MP Cumaratunga told The Island that he had submitted the following queries to Parliament on Nov 14, 2023 expecting answers from the Finance Minister: (a) (i) the total amount earned by the EPF by investing its funds; (ii) the value of the total deposits of the fund and (iii) the total amount earned by investing its funds as a percentage of the value of the Fund’s total deposits?

(b) (i) the number of contributors to the EPF; (ii) the number of active contributors; (iii) the total value of the balances in the accounts of the active contributors and (iv) the total amount earned by the Fund from investing its funds as a percentage of the total value of the balances in the accounts of active contributors?

MP Cumaratunga has reminded Premier Gunawardena that he submitted the queries on EPF afresh on February 08, 2024 as prorogation of Parliament quashed the questions that had been submitted earlier. Now that the questions had been included in the agenda for March 5, Premier Gunawardena should ensure the State Minister answers them and take tangible measures to address the grievances of the EPF members.

The leader of the Yuthukama civil society organization on Feb 20 made representations to the Premier regarding the discrepancy in the payment of interests to EPF contributors in 2022.

Responding to queries, the lawmaker said that based on Central Bank data, he sought an explanation as to how EPF contributors were paid 9% interest whereas Central Bank employees received 29.27% interest in 2022.

MP Cumaratunga said that the State Finance Minister refrained from responding to questions though the Central Bank responsible for EPF operations provided the answers he sought.

The lawmaker said that those who received just 9 % interest could have been paid 11% interest as the Fund had Rs 21 bn after all 2022 payments were made in addition to Rs 53 bn in reserves. The MP claimed that Rs 21 bn plus a part of the reserves could have been utilized to pay 11% interest but the powers that be didn’t do so.

MP Cumaratunga has also urged Premier Gunawardena to inquire into the circumstances Central Bank employees were paid 29.27% interest in 2022 as their investments couldn’t have resulted in such big returns to meet obligatory payments to the governments and then pay such high interest. The MP has stressed the need to take punitive action against those responsible for paying high interest if such income hadn’t been not made during that year.

The parliamentarian said that political parties hadn’t paid sufficient attention to the issue at hand. Actually, the Finance Ministry owed the country an explanation, the MP said, the IMF couldn’t turn a blind eye to what was going on. The IMF shouldn’t be selective in its concerns here, the MP said.