17 December 2020 02:05 am
The Development Officers Service Union (DOSU) yesterday requested the Government to take steps to provide them with duty-free motorcycles.
While sending a letter to Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, DOSU secretary Chandana Sooriyaarachchi said they have already launched a programme to gather information about the officers who could be included to avail this facility.
He said following the discussions held with former Economic Development Ministry Secretary P.B. Jayasundara in 2013, all field officers, including the development officers received duty-free motorcycles.
"We were grateful to those officers for providing the motorcycles, but the opportunity was granted only for the development officers," he said.
However, the programme to provide duty-free motorcycles was suspended after 2015 by the treasury.
We appealed to the previous Government several times to continue with the programme, but they did not even considered our appeal, he said.
Therefore, DOSU requested the Finance Minister to take steps to issue a circular to allow duty free motorcycles for all field officers who have completed five years of service, Mr. Sooriyaarachchi added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)