Colombo, Aug 31 (IANS): The Sri Lankan government has decided to establish a State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit to help with the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said while presenting the Interim Budget 2022 in the parliament.

Wickremesinghe added on Tuesday that nearly $556,000 have been allocated to implement the unit establishment proposal.

Some of the state-owned enterprises have been seeing losses for long due to structural issues, he said, adding that the treasury cannot keep on funding these entities and a mechanism to make them effective needs to be found, Xinhua news agency reported.

Significant fiscal risks arise from a few state-owned enterprises, particularly SriLankan Airlines, Ceylon Electricity Board and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, said the President.

He also said value-added tax will be increased from 12 to 15 per cent effective from September 1 and the retirement age of government and semi-government employees will be reduced to 60 years.