9 October 2018 05:26 pm
According to the Bill, the government’s total expenditure for 2019 is Rs.2.2815 billion or Rs.2.2 trillion while the borrowing limit will be Rs.1,944 billion.
The defense expenditure is Rs 306 billion compared with a recurrent expenditure of Rs.275 billion and a capital expenditure of Rs.63 billion.
President's expenditure is Rs.12,4 billion whereas for the Prime Minister it is Rs.1.6.billion. The amount allocated for the President in 2018 was Rs.7.7 billion while the amount allocated for the Prime Minister was Rs 1.7 billion.
Amount allocated for health and nutrition has been increased to Rs 18.4 billion compared to Rs.18.3 billion in 2018. The situation is same with education with Rs.105,100,000,000 allocated for 2019 compared to Rs.102,880,000,000 in 2018. Amount allocated for the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Council is Rs.245,651,800,000, of which a greater share has been allocated to the Southern Provincial Council amounting to Rs 2.6 billion. Rs 83,500,000,000 has been allocated for higher education.
Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake questioned the method adopted to present Appropriation Bill and said the budget speech should be made one month after the presentation of the appropriation Bill and as such the government could not have the budget speech as scheduled on November 5. House Leader Lakshman Kiriella said it was a matter of three days. Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri said the matter would be looked into. (Yohan Perera and Ajitth Siriwardene)