Consolidated fund brings 3-month public spending under presidential authority
Sri Lanka caretaker government’s spending allocations for the next three months are being made periodically under presidential authority for the second time this year.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has authorised the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund making new financial allocations for the country’s spending agencies and ministries in accordance with Article 150 Para (3) of the Constitution.
This action has been taken towards the uninterrupted continuation of Government services and development activities for a period of three months from June 1 to August 31 this year.
The Treasury has allocated Rs.1043 billion for government spending for the period June to August 2020.
A sum of Rs. 644.1 billion rupees has been allocated for current spending for the next three months, and Rs. 398.8 billion for capital spending including debt repayments.
According to a Treasury circular, the highest allocation of Rs. 546.18billion has been made for the Finance, Economic and Policy Development Ministry.
The Public Administration Ministry has been allocated Rs.154 billion, Defence Ministry Rs.107.26 billion and the Healthcare and Indigenous Medical Services Ministry Rs. 43.1 billion.
Due to a decrease of state revenue in the context of the prevailing pandemic situation and the increase of expenditure and the disaster situation caused by climate change, fiscal space has shrunk even further, the Finance Ministry said.
The most pressing issue at hand was the rapid exhausting of Rs.715 billion allocated from the revised Vote on Account for the period of March-May 2020 as government expenditure.
Government revenue has come down to very low level of around Rs. 300 billion, provisional estimates revealed.
In addition, as the borrowings have also been confined within the statutory limits, the need to manage public expenditure in the future is felt greater than ever, Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle stated in the budget circular last week.
Public expenditure shall only be incurred for already commenced programmes, projects and subjects which are of highest priority and need to be continued further, he revealed.
Therefore, commitments shall not be made related to the expenditure on new staffing, supply and services and also new activities projects, during the period referred. Provisions have not been allocated under the “Supplementary Support Services and Contingent Liabilities Project” in these estimates.
Therefore, he emphasised that if provisions are not available relating to essential expense, spending agencies shall make necessary arrangements to manage such expenditure requirement within the already allocated provisions.
Accordingly, a summary of estimates, prepared on the manner as to how provisions for each Ministry and spending agency are allocated for the next three months incorporating balance provisions of the Vote on Account 2020 has been prepared by the Treasury.
The Department of National Budget will take measures to devise the detailed estimates which provide allocations under each object code and the programme summary in the future, the circular revealed.