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Budget debate: Govt., oppostion MPs in battle over labels
After seven days of debating the “ghame bhaiyyas” (village bumpkin’s) Budget, as President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself quipped after presenting it to the House on October 24, depending on which side of the political divide one was on, it was labelled either an election Budget or one intended to take the country to upper-middle income level by 2020.
Across the board, Opposition legislators saw the many promises contained in the Budget as only intended to appease people ahead of an early Presidential poll, but Government members had no such qualms about its contents. They saw it as an extension of the many development programmes the ruling party has put in place in the past 10 years, which they hope will take the country towards achieving high economic growth by 2020.
Most Opposition legislators chose to dissect the numbers that the President had presented to the House early on in the debate, by which time, much of the initial euphoria among the public to the Budget proposals seems to have evaporated. The pay hike for government servants, which looked substantial, was made to look insignificant, while some of the ambitious new programmes announced by the President, such as free medical checks for all citizens, were also made to look dubious. What many Opposition MPs questioned was how some of the programmes such as a Pensions scheme for three-wheeler drivers, or even a contributory scheme like the Provident Fund, is going to be implemented for garment workers. “This Budget is like an election manifesto. You can make promises, but the Government has no money to fulfil them,” said UNP National List MP Eran Wickramaratne.
President Rajapaksa presenting the Budget on October 24
Almost every Opposition legislator, be they from the UNP, the JVP or the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), seemed to agree on the point that the Budget is election oriented. “The Budget seeks to please and placate wide segments of society, in an effort to ensure their political support for him at an election to be held very soon,” said TNA Parliamentary Group Leader, MP R. Sampanthan.
However, Government members had a different view of the Budget. “The 2015 Budget is aimed at achieving many new development goals that would take the country towards the goal of making Sri Lanka the Wonder of Asia,” said Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena. Other Government members spoke of the political stability that the country enjoys under the present administration. “Political stability leads to economic stability. President Rajapaksa has been able to give the country stability and put it on course to becoming the Wonder of Asia,” said Chief Government Whip and Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardena.
Even though UNP MPs had sought more days for the Budget debate, most of their MPs were absent from the House on Wednesday, which resulted in proceedings being adjourned early. There was also poor attendance of MPs during Question Time, which raises the question whether poor attendance by members on both sides of the House will continue, when the Committee Stage of the Budget begins on Monday and continues till the end of November.