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Budget 2019, the 1st Budget of the United National Front (UNF) Government that came into being after the collapse of the Unity Government with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) last year, was passed by a comfortable majority of 45 votes in Parliament on Friday (5).

The vote on the Third Reading held on Friday evening. after 25 days of debate, saw 119 MPs in favour of the Budget, while 74 opposed it. The UNF, together with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) voted in favour, while the “Joint Opposition”, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted against. Many SLFP MPs affiliated to President Maithripala Sirisena were absent at the time of the vote. They had decided to abstain from voting, following a meeting held earlier in the day.

The Supplementary Estimates of the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development and the Ministry of Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government were also passed on Friday, immediately after the vote on the Third Reading. The Expenditure Heads of these Ministries had earlier been defeated in the House.

When the two Expenditure Heads were taken, the TNA informed Parliament that it would abstain from voting for the Ministry of Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government. Nevertheless, the Expenditure Heads were passed.

All the talk in the days prior to Friday’s vote, about the JO and SLFP managing to spring a surprise and defeat the Budget, together with some defections from the UNF, turned out to be mere wishful thinking on the part of some JO MPs. SLFP support to defeat the Budget was always doubtful, given its decision to abstain from voting on the Second Reading, while the likelihood of defections from the UNF was even more remote. The end proved to be predictably anticlimactic.

Friday was the last of 19 days allotted to the Committee Stage debate of the Budget, and saw the Expenditure Head of the Ministry of Finance being debated. The debate saw a heated exchange between Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardena, after the latter accused the Minister of misleading Parliament regarding the Budget. Mr Gunawardena also claimed that the Finance Ministry’s Senior Advisor Mano Tittawella, had overstepped his authority by instructing Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva to co-sponsor the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution on Sri Lanka. Mr Samaraweera insisted Mr Tittawella was an honest and capable official and was only carrying out his duties as Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms, which oversees the implementation of the UNHRC Resolution. Mr Gunawardena was clearly irritated by the Finance Minister’s interruptions during his speech, and the exchange of words continued for some time.

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa drew contrasts between the 1st Budget presented by the Government, after it was elected to power, and the latest one. “The Government claimed at the time that their’s was a Saradiel Budget that took from the rich and gave to the poor. Yet, in reality, the Government takes from both the rich and the poor. The poor, in fact, get nothing.”

Mr Rajapaksa also poked fun at the Government’s handling of the current power crisis by referring to a widely shared joke on social media, comparing the works of author Martin Wickramasinghe to the Government’s projects and the current power crisis. “The Government has launched a project called ‘Gamperaliya’, but it seems, it is currently reading ‘Karuwalagedara,’ he quipped.

The Opposition Leader urged the Government to be mindful when imposing power-cuts, noting that small industrialists, especially, were struggling due to the current power crisis.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, meanwhile, stated that the Government will gradually lift restrictions imposed on duty-free vehicles for State employees. Accordingly, from June 1, Letters of Credit can be opened on vehicle permits issued before September 30, 2018, while all restrictions will be lifted in stages by October 1.

On Thursday, during the debate on the Expenditure Head of the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Mahaweli Development & Environment, all of which come under the President, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran questioned the rationale behind the mammoth budgetary allocations made for the Ministry of Defence. He noted that even 10 years after the civil war ended, the allocations for the Defence Ministry keep growing each year.

“Recurrent expenditure is there but, if proper demobilisation and demilitarisation had been done in keeping with the actual needs of the country, this colossal allocation for the Ministry need not be made,” he said.

He also drew attention to the continuing issue of private lands being occupied by the military. Mr Sumanthiran acknowledged that a fair amount of land had been released, but stated that, even after 10 long years, substantial swaths of lands are being held by the Army, Navy, Air Force and even the Police. The TNA MP also disputed the claim by security agencies that they had returned more than 90% of land to private ownership. “We have asked for details to ascertain their veracity, but have still not been given them,” he observed, asking the Government to expedite the process of handing the lands back.

Joining the debate, President Maithripala Sirisena said he would take steps to significantly transform the Police into a more efficient force.

He told Parliament there were about 85,000 Police personnel currently, including the Special Task Force (STF). “While these agencies are performing a commendable service in combating drugs, they are hampered by the lack of technical equipment required for drug detection efforts,” he pointed out. The President said the Government had taken measures to purchase high-tech drug detection equipment to help in anti-drug operations.

Parliament will reconvene at 1 pm on May 7.

House echoes to foul exchanges

The public image of MPs took a battering from the disgraceful scenes witnessed in the House during the 52-day political crisis last year. Certain Parliamentarians seem completely oblivious to this however, as seen by the way they engaged in verbal insults using obscene language during the debate this week, even ignoring warnings that children were in the public gallery.

UPFA MP Mohan Priyadarshana De Silva and State Minister Ranjan Ramanayake got into an ugly verbal spat over the sale of MPs’ duty-free vehicle permits during the debate on the Expenditure Heads of the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms and the Ministry of Public Administration and Disaster Management, on Monday.

The spat had obscene references made by both MPs, with MP De Silva using a vulgar term to refer to Mr Ramanayake, for which he was censured by the Chair. Mr De Silva later withdrew the comment.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya later expressed his regret and displeasure over the damage done to the reputation of Parliament by the two MPs using abusive language. He asked all MPs to behave responsibly and exemplarily, while ensuring the prestige of Parliament, and not resort to indecent and offensive language.

The Speaker’s appeals went unheeded, as on Friday, when another argument erupted between State Minister Ramanayake and UPFA MP Nimal Lanza. Mr Lanza used vulgar and sexually demeaning language to refer to the State Minister, alleging that he was also to blame for the current plight of ETI depositors.

Mr Ramanayake shot back, repeating an earlier allegation that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Mr Lanza’s home hurriedly when he was President, to protect him when the STF carried out a drug raid on Mr Lanza’s home in Negombo.

UNP MP Velu Kumar, who was chairing the House at the time, repeatedly urged the MPs to be mindful of their language, but in vain. At the end of Mr Lanza’s speech, he ordered that all unparliamentary language be expunged from the Hansard.