President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed to reduce the levy imposed on the registration of small-scale businesses in order to uplift small-scale and mid-sized businesses.

He has further pointed out the importance of implementing the ‘Gramashakthi People’s Movement’ focusing on low-income people in urban areas.

Furthermore, the upcoming week has been named as the ‘Gramashakthi National Week’ in order to accelerate the disbursement of benefits of ‘Gramashakthi People’s Movement’.

The President made these remarks addressing the meeting of the project of the ‘Gramashakthi People’s Movement’ Western Provincial Planning Committee today (18) in Henegama, Gampaha.

The event was held under the patronage of President Sirisena and under the direction of the President Task Force on poverty alleviation, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

In the last year, grants amounting to Rs 47 million were provided to Gramashakthi societies in the Colombo District and, 39 million rupees has been provided for the Gampaha district and 42 million rupees for the Kalutara district.

Colombo District has a poverty index of 0.9% of the total 2,343,000. The Gampaha District of which the population is 2,372,000, there is a poverty index of 2.0% and the poverty index of the Kalutara district which has 1,281,000 is 2.9%, according to the PMD.

In the last year, the ‘Gramashakthi People’s Movement’ program launched a program to uplift the economic standards of those poor people in the country, the PMD continued. The progress of the programs and their future plans were discussed at the steering committee meeting held today.

The meeting was held with the participation of the political authorities of the province and public officials. It is to provide immediate solutions to the problems faced by the people in the province, the PMD said.

Several new agreements were to be signed between the Gramashakthi society and several private companies of the Western Province, for the purchase of new products in the village societies.

The PMD further said that the Gramashakthi Program has several variations in social welfare programs so far. This program was compiled after studying all the programs conducted so far, such as Janasaviya, Samurdhi and Divi Neguma. “Gramashakthi Program is functioning as a progressive and people friendly program.

For the first time, the Gramashakthi People’s Movement has acted to give the people the opportunity to join a collective decision-making process, rather than swayed by the bureaucracy. All decisions regarding the development of the village are being made by rural societies under Gramashakthi, the PMD added.

Social incentivized programs so far have encouraged the people to obtain financial or other assistance from the government, the PMD continued.