News
Defence sector will gobble up close to Rs 400 billion
Budgetary allocation for the Defence sector will be close to Rs 400 billion for this year, according to Appropriation Bill 2019, to be presented to Parliament on February 5.
With the Police Department being brought under the Defence Ministry, the Rs 307 billion allocated in the previous Appropriation Bill presented in October 2018, has shot up to Rs 393 billion.
In addition to the Police Department, the Defence allocations cover the Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Air Force, Department of Civil Security and Department of the Sri Lanka Coastguard.
This will be the second Appropriation Bill for 2019 to be presented to the House. The first one was presented to Parliament in October 2018, but could not be debated and passed due to the political crisis that ensued with President Maithripala Sirisena sacking the UNP government.
Other big allocations will be for the Ministries of Internal and Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government (Rs 292 billion), Public Administration and Disaster Management (Rs 216.5 billion), Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (Rs 187.4 billion), Finance and Mass Media (Rs 183.8 billion) and Highways, Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development (Rs 175.5 billion).
Total expenditure for this year will be Rs 4,470 billion and the Budget deficit will be 4.8 % of GDP.
Rs 2,200 billion has been allocated for Debt Servicing in 2019. This is the highest a government, in the history of this country, has to bear for Debt Servicing, the Finance Ministry said.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera will present the Budget to Parliament on March 5 and a month-long debate will be held, with the final vote scheduled for early April.