Curtailing Capital expenditure

• Circular issued last week
• Finance Ministry says it is not a new decision but something mentioned in 2019 budget 

By Kelum Bandara  

The Finance Ministry has issued a circular last week asking for the curtailment of Capital expenditures of the Ministries by 15% considering the prevailing situation of the country, a Minister said yesterday.  

The Minister who wished to remain anonymous said the Finance Ministry had a meeting with the Ministry Secretaries to discuss the move. Initially, it was proposed to curtail such expenditures by 30%, but finally agreed to 15%.   

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry, in response to the front page news story headlined “Govt to cut capital expenditure by 15%’, said it was not a new decision.  

The Ministry said, “In fact, this is not a new decision as portrayed by your story. But was an intrinsic decision that itself was in the 2019 budget proposals presented by the Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera. The news item tend to create misconception in the minds of the people that the government has arrived at this new decision due to financial constrains in the aftermath of the terrorist attack,”   

 Meanwhile, majority of the Ministers are unhappy about the move by the Finance Ministry.