In a circular, the treasury says it wants the CTB workforce to be cut from the present 36,700 to 19,800, he says.

However, both the transport minister and himself were against curtailing the employees, he says.

Abeysinghe says the CTB will try to exist even despite a surplus of employees.

He goes onto say that the CTB has not paid EPF dues amounting to Rs. 10,000 million of employees between 2011 and 2014.

The CTB also has to pay Rs. 400 million to the ETF, Rs. 2,000 million as dividends, Rs. 300 million for tyres, Rs. 30 million for spare-parts, which come to a grand total of nearly Rs. 15,000 million.

The deputy minister also says Rs. 01 billion has been obtained from the treasury to pay their salaries.