Budget 2026 : What about relief to people?

Another bagful of promises was dished out to the public last week. But customary budget readings won’t suffice if these allocations don’t fulfil the demands of people.  Individuals representing various sectors including agriculture have raised concerns regarding the failure to address immediate woes of farmers,  for instance. Every budget looks very attractive with millions of rupees allocated to develop infrastructure and so on. But a country recovering from a crisis needs to be practical in terms of providing some kind of relief to people. The Department of Census and Statistics indicated that the monthly income should be Rs. 150,000 for an individual to live a decent life. But this amount is a dream for people living on a daily wage. On the other hand, the general public remains the least bothered about the budget because they are well aware of the fact that they wouldn’t get any sort of relief. But the president did boast about the Treasury having a surplus of cash. He said that Sri Lanka is nearing the completion of the debt restructuring process. In that case, the government should also look at bringing down the high cost of living which the people have been living since post-pandemic. 

Lahiru Ranasinghe

Kolonnawa