The findings emerged from the IPS study that sought to explore the equity of tax and government welfare programmes, in an effort to understand which part of the population bears the largest tax burden and who benefits the most from the government welfare schemes.

“The Public Service Pensions, which account for 8 percent of the government’s recurrent expenditure, favours the richest of households. Forty-four percent of the pension receivers belong to the wealthiest 20 percent of the population. Only 11 percent of the pension benefits are directed towards the bottom 40 percent,” the study stated.

Moreover, the study revealed that the pension expenditure in Sri Lanka increased by 20.5 percent in 2023, due to a policy decision to reduce the retirement age from 65 to 60, leading to a sudden surge in the number of retirees.