SL Budget altered during Parliament debate
Sri Lanka’s 2015 Budget is one of mixed sorts – handouts, concessions, confusing numbers, proposals not matching allocations and furthermore, this week, for the first time ever, the projected expenditure was adjusted during the budget debate.
On Wednesday, in a surprise move the government altered nearly 1/3rd of the 2015 budget expenditure (as proposed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa) both in the Appropriation Bill presented on September 26 and the Budget on October 24.
Under this, of the 77 proposals/allocations, changes were made to 27 proposals/allocations when Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne presented an amendment, increasing expenditure to Rs. 2.168 trillion from the estimate of Rs. 1.812 trillion, up by Rs 356 billion. The supplementary estimate presented to parliament has also increased the government’s borrowing to Rs. 440 billion.
Official sources said this is the first time in recent budget history that a supplementary estimate was moved in parliament to amend the budgetary allocation in less than two weeks after the budget had been presented in parliament.
United National Party (UNP) MP Dr. Harsha de Silva told parliament that a government that boosted about its magical budget has now presented the actual figures secretly through an amendment. “We continuously asked the government to show the increased income as they claim had happened. But there was no answer to that,” he said, adding that it was extremely suspicious that the government is trying to increase the budgetary allocations within a lapse of less than two weeks of the budget being presented to the House. Separately he told the Business Times that it is more than surprising, that the government has raised defence and urban development spending to Rs. 291 billion from the 2014 figure of Rs. 253 billion, five years since ending the war in the North East in 2009. It is essential to find the ulterior motive behind this move, he emphasised.
Budgetary allocations to the Defence Ministry in 2007 amounted to Rs. 140 billion, Rs.166 billion in 2008, Rs.175 billion in 2009, Rs. 273 billion in 2010, Rs. 214 billion in 2011, Rs. 230 billion in 2012 and Rs. 290 billion in 2013.
Expenditure has increased after the Defence and Urban Development Ministries including the Urban Development Authority were amalgamated in 2011.
| Vehicle prices tumble except for trucks
The prices of the vehicles in stock, other than trucks (commercial vehicles) in the category of 5000-20000 gross vehicle weight (GVW), will come down by between 2 to 10 per cent due to Excise Special Provision tax presented in the 2015 budget, President of the Ceylon Motor Traders’ Association, Gihan Pilapitiya told the Business Times. A 1000cc Indian or Chinese made car would drop by Rs.300,000 and approximately Rs. 75,000-Rs. 100,000 for Japanese and Malaysian cars, he said after consultation with senior government officials. The imposition of VAT and NBT has now been clarified and the buyers will not have to pay VAT as the VAT at the import and the selling point has been removed, he said adding that this will also apply to vehicle leasing as well. The gazette notification pertaining to Excise Special Provision tax on motor vehicle imports will be issued tomorrow (Monday), Finance Ministry sources said. Accordingly the price of a car less than 2000 cc will drop by Rs. 400,000 to Rs.500,000, over 2000cc- 25000 cc car or SUV by Rs. 600,000 to Rs. 800,000 and over 2500cc car or SUV by Rs.800,000-Rs. 1.2 million. However Mr. Pilapitiya said that trucks with GVW 5,000-20,000 will increase by around 8-10 per cent. Until 2013 there was no Excise duty for trucks. A 29 per cent excise duty was imposed for this segment of trucks in 2013 increasing the selling prices, he disclosed. There was no vat on this segment of trucks until now but the new tax had ignored this fact and the new slab is increasing prices further. For example a Rs. 4 million worth truck will go up by around 8-10 per cent,. This would have been even worse if not for the exchange gain especially of the Japanese Yen, he pointed out. |