A large number of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) employees took to the streets outside the Colombo Fort Railway Station yesterday (8) in protest against the proposed privatisation of their companies, as presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Budget 2023.

The crowds chanted slogans and carried placards that blamed privatisation for Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, decried the sale of profit-making State-owned enterprises, and alleged corruption behind the proposed sale of SLT.

The 2023 Budget announced the privatisation of several State-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the SriLankan Airlines, SLT, the Hilton hotel, the Water’s Edge hotel, and the SLIC and its subsidiaries.

SLT has remained the national information and communications technology solutions provider in Sri Lanka for over 163 years, fulfilling the needs of over nine million customers in the Island, while the SLIC remains Sri Lanka’s largest State-owned insurer for over five decades since 1962 with a network of 158 branches across Sri Lanka.