But for the government members it was a development budget meant to yield long term benefits to the country and make a break from the usual "politically popular" budgets that reduce prices of consumer goods to give instant but short term benefit to the people but have little long term benefits to the country.

And from the point of view of the masses, they were left confused as to whether they had benefited from it or were on the threshold of being plunged deeper into economic hardships.

When the unassuming Finance Minister K.N.Choksy walked into the chambers on Wednesday afternoon carrying his little brown wooden box containing the Budget speech and its proposals, he was greeted with the usual thumping of tables by members on his side.

But that's more or less all the excitement it generated with the Minister winding up his presentation in under two hours - quite an unusual practice in a House where Budget presentations sometimes went on to five to six hours.

There was also little interruption to his speech as it lacked the popular appeal that Budget's in this country have come to be associated with.

The UNF government had succeeded in turning the negative growth recorded last year to around three per cent of the GDP for 2002, inflation had been reduced by around nine per cent, the foreign reserves increased, the exchange rate stabilized and made several other positive developments, he said but he was unable to offer anything in way of direct relief to the masses.

Thus employment generation and the much anticipated wage increases would have to wait till next year. instead he announced that a new tax regime has been contemplated starting in April, 2003 aimed at streamlining the country's tax system.

He also said the government envisaged passing the fiscal management (responsibility) law, which stipulates that the government lay before parliament and the public, a statement detailing the government's fiscal policy, objectives, targets and performance.

He also announced the creation of a contributory pension scheme for public officers starting January, 2003.

But for the most pressing problem of the people, the high cost of living, there was no quick fix offered by the Minister.

All he said was that containing the cost of living has been a priority objective of the government and that the government had taken decisive steps by reducing several surcharges and taxes so that the private sector and traders can pass down these benefits to the consumers.

He however admitted that the government is unhappy that the resulting benefits have not been passed down to the consumer and were hence looking at a legal mechanism whereby equitable price levels for the consumers could be ensured.

PA MP Sarath Amunugama seized on this admission by Mr.Choksy saying it was a pathetic admission by him that the government cannot give effect to its own tax laws.

"The Minister has the audacity to come here and shed crocodile tears and say that each Sri Lankan man, woman and child carried on his or her shoulder a liability of Rs 77,500 being the individual share of the country's debt burden when they took office last year.

But in a few weeks this will shoot past Rs 100,000 per person.

That is the extent of the liability you have incurred in one year," Dr.Amunugama said.

Much of JVP MP Wimal Weerawansa's speech was rhetorical than addressing facts. He stuck to the party's favourite theme of the UNF being slaves to the big bad monsters called the IMF and the World Bank and the failure of the UNF to deliver its election promises to bring about a major turn around in the country's economy.

''Where are the Hercules', supermen and Rambos who were making these claims today. If the Minister wants he can even present the third, fourth and even the fifth budget of the UNF government because it has already been prepared by the IMF," he charged.

The JVPer seemed to have been surfing the internet quite a lot prior to the Budget because he said one only had to log onto www.IMF.org and the government's budget could be seen posted on it two weeks ago.

Tamil legislators who spoke were supportive of the government's Budget not because they felt it gave any relief to the people but because the government did not need any distraction with the on going peace talks.

"Nothing is clear in this budget but we have no intention of destabilising the government. Even if there are shortcomings, we have to support it," TNA legislator V. Anandasangari said.

Two days into the debate on the Budget, there was little addressing of the facts by many of the members who spoke. The rallying cry of many in the opposition was that the budget was intended for the elitist friends of the UNF.

For the UNF member it was a repetition of last year's accusations against the PA of running to the ground the country's economy and leaving the UNF the difficult task of putting the house in order.

As Lands Minister Dr.Rajitha Senaratne put it in a nut shell, "In the first budget, we laid the foundation, in this budget we are building the walls.

But water can still creep in. In the next budget we will fix the roof, in the one after that we will install the windows and doors and in the final Budget of the UNF government we will plaster the House.

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