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Tomato farmers have been hit hard by falling prices. The price of a kilo of tomatos has fallen as low as Rs.eight a kilo. Even with such low prices, farmers are still struggling to find buyers. The prevailing rains are also hitting the quality of the produce, they complain. Pic by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa

Despite severe criticism of the Government’s budget by both lawmakers of the Joint Opposition (JO) as well as the JVP, the Government breezed through the vote on the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill-2017 in Parliament on Friday, securing 162 votes in its favour and 55 voting against it.

The Government drew support from the main opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) as well as EPDP MP Douglas Devananda and UPFA/CWC MP Arumugam Thondaman while the JVP voted against it.

Seven days and 131 speakers later, the Second Reading vote was taken on Friday evening where the UNP and SLFP unity government put forward a strong united front with Government members staunchly backing Minister Karunanayake’s budget while the JVP joined the JO in lambasting the Budget presented to Parliament by Minister Karunanayake on November 10.

The Finance Minister who wound up the debate disclosed that the debt burden inherited by the Government was colossal and now stood in excess of Rs.9.9 trillion and warned that the burden of the mounting debt will be felt at an alarming rate from 2018 onwards.

“Managing this colossal debt is no easy task. At present the country’s debt management responsibilities are shared by the Central Bank, the General Treasury and the Public Debt Department. This arrangement was good when the total debt was at a manageable level at a few billion rupees. These debts need to be closely monitored and controlled on a day-to- day basis. Therefore our Government intends to undertake the management of debt based on a new piece of legislation to be brought to the House in the first quarter of next year,” the Minister said.

Former President and Kurunegela District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who spoke during the debate said the Budget has been made to pacify the international community but at a cost to national interests.

“The present government is weakening the Central Bank and state banks so that there would be no other option but to privatise them. In the same manner, many more state institutions will also be privatised,” he said.

Mr. Rajapaksa said it is unfortunate that SLFP MPs were backing a Budget which was one meant to take the UNP economic policies forward.

Opposition Leader and TNA MP R.Sampanthan spoke in support of the Government saying it has shown commitment to give the country a new economic, political and social future.

“The Government has ambitious programmes to accelerate growth. The Government plans to enter into Free Trade Agreements with several countries – India, China, Singapore, South Korea and several other countries. The Government hopes to receive a great deal of foreign direct investment. One must acknowledge that the world is friendly towards Sri Lanka today: very different from the past and our expectations could therefore materialise,” he said.

Chief Opposition Whip JVP MP Anura Dissanayaka was extremely critical of the Budget saying the Government policies were leading to the accumulation of more debts instead of getting the country out of the debt trap while under the guise of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), state enterprises were being privatised.

“The Government is trying to sell off all the country’s valuable resources. You are taking the same disastrous economic path once again,” he said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the country has got a unique opportunity to forge a solid economic path which will be continued even when there are changes in government.  

“This is the best opportunity to make new economic policies taking the strengths of the two main parties into consideration so that when there is a change in government, one will not say these are the other parties policies and change them,” he said.