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Budget on Tuesday, after four-month delay due to constitutional crisis
Budget 2019, delayed for four months due to the unprecedented constitutional crisis that engulfed the country for over 50 days, will finally be presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in his Budget Speech on Tuesday (5). A month-long Parliamentary debate will follow, with a final Budget vote scheduled for April 5.
Six days have been allocated for the Debate on the Second Reading; to be held from March 6 to March 12. The Committee Stage Debate will run for 19 days from March 13 to April 5.
The Government presented the Appropriation Bill 2019 to Parliament on February 5. Accordingly, the highest budgetary allocation will be for the Ministry of Defence with Rs 393 billion.
Other large allocations will be for the Ministries of Internal and Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government (Rs 292 billion), Public Administration and Disaster Management (Rs 263 billion), Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (Rs 187 billion), Highways & Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development (Rs 176 billion) and Agriculture (Rs 114 billion).
Total expenditure for this year will be Rs 4470 billion and the budget deficit will be 4.8 percent of GDP.
Rs 2200 billion has been allocated for Debt Servicing in 2019. This is the highest amount a Government has had to bear for Debt Servicing in the history of the country, the Finance Ministry said.
Despite the country’s economic situation worsening due to the 52-day Constitutional crisis, the Government will stick to its promise to provide a “people friendly budget,” United National Party (UNP) General Secretary and Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam claimed.
He stressed that the Government had been providing relief for the people even through previous budgets, including granting a Rs 10, 000 salary increase to some 1.5 million state sector employees. “Our goal now is to establish a more stable Government after the General Elections. If we can do that, a lot more can be done,” he opined.
The Government’s budget proposals should not add additional burdens on the people and the country as it is already experiencing its worst debt crisis and an economic slowdown, Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena told the Sunday Times.
Claiming that all of the Government’s budgets to date had been failures as the Joint Opposition had predicted, Mr Gunawardena said the Joint Opposition would not be able to support this budget either. “We will stand up for the country and the people,” he stressed.