By Sarah Hannan Minister of Passenger Transport Management Mahinda Amaraweera will seek Cabinet approval to release funds of Rs. 1.4 billion to pay salaries of public transport employees. The Minister said the estimated daily revenue loss for the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), Sri Lanka Railways (SLR), and the Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) accumulated to Rs. 121 million. “The funds requested through the Treasury will settle the salaries of SLTB and SLRD. However, the DMT will have to look at opening their area offices in other districts to issue licenses and hopefully, one week of business would raise sufficient funds to pay the salaries for the month of May,” Amaraweera noted. Ministry of Passenger Transport Management Media Spokesperson W.M.D. Wanninayake, elaborating on the same, said: “The salaries for March was paid for all institutions. However, a cabinet paper had been released seeking approval to release funds from the Treasury to pay the April salaries. A total sum of Rs. 1.4 billion is requested from the Treasury and the Ministry hopes that Cabinet approval will be signalled for the same next week.” Wanninayake added that although trains are operating, there are not enough passengers, and for buses, since the maximum allowed number of passengers is 25, the income is underscored by the cost to deploy the bus on the route. “For example, the fuel cost for all buses that were deployed in the Batticaloa District was Rs. 200,000 and the revenue that was generated from all these buses was Rs. 76,000. The situation is pretty much the same in the other districts as well,” Wanninayake said. It is said that the DMT will require Rs. 90 million and Rs. 110 million, respectively, to pay their May salaries. As suggested, if the Department manages to opens area offices for business for a week, the matter should resolve. It is noteworthy that the DMT pays their staff salaries using the revenue received and does not depend on the Treasury to pay their salaries. Owing to the country being placed under quarantine curfew, the revenue losses experienced in the past 45 days by each of the institutions are estimated at Rs. 3.6 billion for SLTB, Rs. 675 million for SLRD for passenger services, and Rs. 1.3 billion for DMT.