See How Sinhala Govt expenditure had increased on an unprecedented scale..! The budget cannot accommodate it! But still want to detain Tamil IDPs.!!!

Govt. gets Rs. 118 billion outside Budget: Ravi K

By Melanie Bamunusinghe

The Government has sought Rs. 118 billion through supplementary estimates this year, UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said in Parliament yesterday.

He told journalists yesterday among supplementary estimates for 2009 were Rs. 350 million, 2.4 billion and 2.1 billion allocated for resettlement and rehabilitation for the IDPs, Uthuru Wasanthaya Project in the north and water and sanitation facilities to the rural sector respectively.

Estimates show that Rs. 2.3 billion has been allocated for financial assistance to the SLTB and Rs. 8 billion for an economic stimulus package.

“Government expenditure had increased on an unprecedented scale so that the budget cannot accommodate it,” said Mr. Karunanayake.

He further stated that the current budget deficit of 0.13% cannot be reduced to more than 0.11% with the supplementary estimates given by the Government for this year.

He claimed that the Government would not be able to achieve to the agreement made with IMF which assured that the budget deficit would be reduced to 0.7% by 2009, 0.6% by 2010 and to 0.5 by 2011.

“Next year under the new Government, we will prepare a new budget that ensures the benefits that are there, are distributed to the people,” he said.

He also said that if the Government reduces the number of Ministers then the expenditure will be reduced greatly.

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