Sri Lankan lawmakers scrap their pensions, delivering on a campaign promise

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan legislators overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to scrap their pensions, in a bid to fulfill a key preelection campaign promise by the ruling Marxist-leaning government following anger over the country’s economic crisis.

Lawmakers passed the bill on Tuesday by 154 votes in the 225-member House, with only two against. The remaining legislators were not present during the vote.

In Sri Lanka, a lawmaker was previously entitled to a pension after serving a five-year term. The new law stops payments to anyone who already receives, or qualifies for, the pension. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, voted into office in 2024, pledged to end the practice during his election campaign.

In a similar move, Dissanayake’s government abolished perks provided to former presidents in September in response to popular demand. Those included state funding for housing, allowances, pensions and transport. An office and a staff for former presidents and their widows were also scrapped. There are currently five living past presidents and a widow.

Dissanayake won the vote, riding on public resentment against politicians accused of being responsible for the country’s worst economic plight in 2022. The crisis led to a severe shortage of food, medicine, fuel and electricity, and triggered protests that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara presented the bill in parliament, saying an election promise had been fulfilled and that lawmakers had no moral right to receive a pension at a time when the country was struggling to emerge from its worst economic crisis.

Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half it to foreign creditors. It sought the help of the International Monetary Fund, which approved a $2.9 billion four-year bailout package in 2023, under which Sri Lanka was required to restructure its debt.

The island-nation said it had concluded the debt restructuring process after reaching agreements with bilateral and multilateral creditors and private bondholders. Sri Lanka is seeking to obtain $17 billion in debt service relief.

Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the 2019 terrorism attacks that devastated its important tourism industry. The pandemic also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.