Member of Parliament (Sri Lanka)
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Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
a Member of Parliament (MP), is the title given to any one of the 225 individuals elected or appointed to serve in the
Parliament of Sri Lanka The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ''Shri Lanka Parlimenthuwa'', Tamil: இலங்கை நாடாளுமன்றம் ''Ila ...
.


Electoral system

Of the 225 members, 196 are elected from 22 electoral districts, which are
multi-member An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
. The remaining 29 MPs are elected from National Lists allocated to the
parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
(and
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
groups) in proportion to their share of the national vote.


Elections

All MP positions become simultaneously vacant for
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
s held on a five-year cycle. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, then an electoral district vacancy may be filled by the second highest scoring candidate in the last election from that electoral district.


Title

An MP is known as The Honourable (The Hon. or Hon.) ''Name'' MP or simply as the ''Name'' MP, during their term in office. For instance,
Eran Wickramaratne Eran Wickramaratne, ( si, ඉරාන් වික්‍රමරත්න) ( ta, இரான் விக்கிரமரத்ன) MP is a Sri Lankan banker and politician. He is the former State Minister of Finance and member of Parliame ...
is generally known to be entitled as the Hon. Eran Wickramaratne MP but can be titled as just Eran Wickramaratne MP.


Salaries and benefits

An average MP would earn more than Rs 270,000 including salary and other benefits, in-addition of attendance allowances.


Basic salary

Remuneration and allowances for elected members were first introduced in the State Council of Ceylon. A Member of Parliament will receive a salary of Rs 54,285 (with a proposed increased to 120,000 from January 2018) paid monthly by the parliament, while Ministers, Deputy Ministers and State Ministers will receive a salary applicable to their grade from their Ministries.


Allowances

In addition to the monthly salary, MPs are entitled to several additional allowances. MPs who do not hold a ministerial appointment, would receive an additional entertainment allowance of Rs 1000 and drivers allowance (if no driver is allocated by government) of 3000 per month. All MPs are entitled to a daily sitting allowance and committee allowance of Rs 2,500 each per sitting. ;Travel allowance Each member is entitled to a fuel allowance based on the distance from parliament to their electoral district (Colombo 283.94 L; Gampaha and Kaluthara 355.58 L).


Office expenses

Each MP is entitled to a monthly office allowance of Rs 100,000, telephone allowance of Rs 50,000 and transport allowance for personal staff of Rs 10,000 for 4 personal staff to office. At the start of each term an MP has an allowance to purchase office equipment such as a computers, copier and fax machine. They are entitle to an annual free postal facility allowance of Rs 350,000, which was increased from Rs 175,000 in 2019.


Other benefits

;Tax benefits Members claim tax exemptions on their pay and allowance at it has been deemed an
honorarium An honorarium is an ''ex gratia'' payment, i.e., a payment made, without the giver recognizing themselves as having any liability or legal obligation, to a person for his or her services in a volunteer capacity or for services for which fees are no ...
. ;Travel Historically MPs were issued bus and railway warrants to travel by bus or train to Colombo from their constituencies. Today MP's are not entitled for an official vehicle unless they received ministerial appointment. In such an event they would receive transport from their ministry based on their type ministerial appointment. During times of vehicle import restrictions, MPs have issued with vehicles for the constituency work such as
Mitsubishi Jeep The Jeep CJ models are a series and a range of small, open-bodied off-road vehicles and compact pickup trucks, built and sold by several successive incarnations of the Jeep automobile marque from 1945 to 1986. The 1945 Willys Jeep was the worl ...
s in the 1970s and
Toyota Land Cruiser Prado The is a full-size four-wheel drive vehicle in the Land Cruiser range produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Prado is one of the smaller vehicles in the Land Cruiser range. From 2009, the Prado is based on Toyota's J150 platform. In ...
s in 2021 which as caused an controversy. ;Duty free vehicle Each member is given an entitlement to import a high value luxury vehicle with a high engine capacity without paying import duty that is normally charged under a duty free permit each term of office. Accusations have been risen on the misuse of this benefit by members, who allow others to import super luxury vehicles under their name and use. Ministers are also allocated two vehicles from their respective ministry in addition to said privilege. ;Housing and vacationing Historically MPs from outlying constituencies lodged at
Srawasthi Mandiraya The Srawasthi Mandiraya is the primary office complex of the Western Provincial Council, located in Cinnamon Gardens, a suburb of Colombo. Built in 1913, it saw use for most of its lifetime as a hostel for Members of Parliament from outside Co ...
in central Colombo and was known as the MP's hostel. In the 1980s with the construction of the
Madiwela Housing Complex Madiwela Housing Complex in the suburb of Madiwela, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is a housing scheme owned and maintained by the Parliament of Sri Lanka for the use of Members of Parliament (MPs) from out side Colombo. Until the 1980s, MPs from outly ...
, members from constituencies from out side Colombo received housing at the Madiwela Housing Complex or an allowance to rent a house. In addition, MPs and their families have exclusive use of the General's House, which is a nineteen-roomed holiday bungalow in
Nuwara Eliya Nuwara Eliya ( si, නුවර එළිය ; ta, நுவரெலியா) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrativ ...
maintained by the members' services office of the department of administration of the parliament secretariat. ;Other subsidies Members are entitled to subsidized meals in the members dining area at parliament. Young
Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
without higher educational qualifications receive direct admission to the Sri Lanka Law College without setting for its entrance exam. ;Pension On the completion of a term, an MP becomes entitled to a government pension for life.No pension for 69 first time MPs due to dissolution of parliament
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See also

*
Member of Provincial Council In Sri Lanka a Member of Provincial Council (also known as Provincial Councilor), is the title given to an elected member of a provincial council. As of 2017, there are 455 members in nine provincial councils. Elections All positions in a provin ...


References

{{Parliament of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...