Mangala grants 3-fold pay hike to Maithri’s brother

Thursday, 02 April 2015 

The Sri Lanka Telecom director board at its meeting yesterday (01) decided to grant a three-fold raise in the salary of their chairman Kumarasiri Liyanage, younger brother of president Maithripala Sirisena, reports say.

Accordingly, the Rs. 950,000 basic salary of the SLT chairman will be increased to Rs. 03 million.

The SLT directors have taken the decision with the knowledge of Mangala Samaraweera, who is the minister in charge of the telecommunication and IT portfolio.

Kumarasiri is also acting chairman of SLT affiliate Mobitel and receives a similar salary separately.

All these are basic salaries, and inclusive of all allowances, he draws a monthly remuneration of nearly 10 m from the two institutions.

However, the SLT directors’ decision has been strongly opposed by shareholder Maxis of Malaysia. The directors have insisted the pay hike should take place. Maxis has then issued a warning against this authoritarian decision and is looking to sell its SLT shares.