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Home » ColumnsWeary Finance Minister presents Budget amidst ‘ticking bomb’on foreign loans
As Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa declared earlier, Budget 2022 was presented in the backdrop of an economy in serious decline, with a bleak future ahead and international credit agencies issuing warnings that Sri Lanka is on the ‘ticking bomb’ path towards default in-servicing on its overseas loans. When Minister Rajapaksa began reading his inaugural budget [...]
A little bit of everything for every sector in Basil’s futuristic people’s budget
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s maiden Budget, the second of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government, was presented to Parliament on Friday (12) as the country struggles with one of the worst economic crises it has ever faced. The Finance Minister himself had attempted to dampen public expectations on this being a Budget mostly focused [...]
Where is the justice?
My dear Sabry, I thought I must write to you this week because there was a lot of speculation that you were about to quit the Cabinet after Gnanasara haamuduruwo was appointed as the head of a task force that would make suggestions about this so-called ‘One Country, One Law’ which everyone is talking about. [...]
Greater diligence in governance a must
The current challenges for governance in Sri Lanka stem from a variety of causes ranging from fluctuating prices for imports such as fuel and food in the global market, but also unanticipated events, such as the COVID pandemic, over which the country has little control. One would have thought that in such a situation those [...]
Budget 2022: Daunting task of achieving financial stability
Never has a Budget been prepared in as onerous economic, social and political conditions as the budget for 2022. It has been prepared in a context of a sharp revenue shortfall, rising expenditure and excess money printing. It has been appropriately described as one of the trickiest budgets in Sri Lankan history. Little prospect The [...]
‘There is nothing to give, we may only have to take’
There was little doubt that Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s off the cuff quip that, ‘there is nothing to give, we may only have to take’ (from Sri Lankans) when quizzed by reporters as to what relief the 2022 National Budget promises to the citizenry, would soon return to haunt him. Public discontent and political racketeering [...]
Storm Erwinia heads from South China Sea to Lanka
If the Bay of Bengal’s low depression brewed the storm that broke over Lanka to engulf its people in untold misery this week, then a diplomatic tempest developing off the South China Sea threatens to soon stand poised over Lankan skies to unleash its torrents of fury upon a sovereign nation and drown the proffered [...]
The local mafia that done it
As this is being written Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is presenting his maiden budget to Parliament. What further shocks await a hapless public already struggling under constantly rising food prices, shortages including household requirements such as gas to keep the home fires burning will be known by the time this appears. It might be recalled [...]
Govt. caught in stormy weather: Finance Minister in tough rescue task
As Treasury loses Rs. 500 billion due to pandemic effect, the budget tries to resuscitate Lanka’s trade-focused economy Opposition hits out at Basil’s Budget, sees Aladdin’s magic lamp as damp squib; Sajith describes it as road to Somalia Teachers, principals win their demands; Govt. allocates Rs. 30 billion to sort out their salary anomalies Govt. [...]
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