Sri Lanka is to introduce a pension scheme for its overseas workers, including those who are in the Kingdom.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as finance and planning minister, announced the scheme when he presented the 2015 budget proposals in Parliament recently.

Amal Senadilankara, chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), told Arab News from Colombo that the new scheme is good news to the 1.5 million Sri Lankan workers around the world.

Saudi Arabia has the largest concentration of the island’s worker population, with more than 550,000 Sri Lankan workers working across the Kingdom.

“Based on the budget proposal made by President Rajapaksa, we are chalking out a comprehensive pension scheme to all our foreign workers, which will be presented to the legislature on Nov. 11,” Senadilankara said.

Sri Lankan overseas workers are statutorily required to register with the SLBFE before they leave for overseas employment.

The chairman said the contributory scheme would cover all foreign workers irrespective of their age.

Welcoming the new proposal, Dr. H.M. Rafeek from Jeddah said it is a long felt need of the Lankan foreign workers.

“When they return home from their foreign work places, the pension scheme would help them continue their retirement without any hassle,” he said.

“This is good news to all Lankan foreign workers,” said Nihal Gamage, former president of the Sri Lankan Expatriates’ Society.

He said that foreign workers should be thankful to the government for initiating this proposal.

“Our contributions toward the national economy was never recognized up until recently,” he stressed.

Remittances from Lankan overseas workers are the second largest to Colombo.

Sri Lankan migrant worker remittances surged over $7 billion in 2013, an increase of at least $1 billion from the previous year.

In 2012, migrant worker remittances rose to US $6.1 billion, the highest contribution from a single sector to the country’s foreign revenue.

Workers’ remittances accounted for 10 percent of the country’s GDP in 2012.

The Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Ministry, meanwhile, targets remittances of $10 billion by 2020.

Current figures show that with over 1.7 million Sri Lankan’s working abroad, migrant workers constitute 17 percent of Sri Lanka’s working population.

Some of the highlights of the budget include an increase in monthly salary of state sector employees to a minimum of 15,000 rupees.

A new salary structure will be implemented from January. Cost of living allowance of state employees will be increased by 2,200 rupees in 2015, which will provide 10,000 rupees of minimum living allowance.

Furthermore, a proposal has been made to increase the minimum salary of private sector employees to 10,000 rupees by 2015 and a 500 rupees allowance to be added each month.

In addition, EPF payment from the employer will be increased by up to 14 percent.