The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, (SLRC) the country’s Premier State Media organisation lurched towards financial crisis prompting government authorities to lease out the corporation assets and immovable property to meet recurrent expenditure, Media Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.
With the aim of covering basic expenses including loans it has been proposed to lease a land belonging to the corporation for a sum of over Rs.1 billion to a state university to construct a building , he disclosed
He noted that the private sector will not be involved in this land transaction what so ever.According to treasury sources , SLRC had been losing close to Rs.300 Million annually.
in May 2019 , a sum of Rs. 450 Mn was requested by SLRC from the treasury to pay salaries but had been rejected at a Pre-cabinet meeting as the corporation had not shown promising results.
A senior official of the treasury said that the SLRC required Rs. 200 Mn a month to break-even. But the corporation has been making only Rs. 120 to Rs 140 Mn per month and had been facing an average loss of Rs. 60 to Rs 80 Mn monthly.
He said immediate payables to suppliers were over Rs 100 Mn. And the corporation was currently running on advertisement income
“According to financial statements SLRC’s financial crisis began in 2014 and had worsened in 2017 mainly due to mismanagement.
In June 2022 for the first time in 37 years staff salaries were not paid on time and financials are in dire straits since up to now, informed internal sources revealed. SLRC Ratings are down and the corporation is grossly overstaffed.
It has been revealed that the Treasury has been requested to provide Rs. 240 million for a period of six months to cover the salaries and other essential expenses of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation. It is stated that the Corporation had to request the favour due to the financial crisis.
This amount has been requested to cover the salaries and essential expenses of the employees during the period from October 2022 to April 2023 .
The Corporation has informed the Treasury that the revenue has decreased to the extent that it has not been able to pay the salaries and cover the essential expenses, SLRC official sources said.
It is stated that the gap between the revenue and expenditure of the Corporation is around Rs. 65 million.
The Rupavahini Corporation employs about 862 people and spends around Rs. 90 million a month to pay their salaries.
