The Appropritation Bill outlining the government's expenditure for 2019 is to be submitted before Parliament today (Feb 05) by Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera.
Meawhile, the first debate on the budget is also expected to take place during today's parliamentary session which is expected to commence at 1 pm.
The second and third reading of the budget will take place on March 05 and 13 respectively while final vote would be taken up on April 04.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the government will have to pay Rs 2,200 billion as debt - the largest amount ever to be paid as debt within an year.
The estimated expenditure of the government for this year is Rs 4,470 billion while the budget deficit would be 4.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Production (GDP). The Finance Ministry expects that the expenditure of the state would go upto 15 percent of the GDP this year.
The UK government has unveiled a package of reforms to simplify imports from developing countries which allows for more garments manufactured in Sri Lanka to enter the UK tariff-free.
Read these and more on tomorrow’s edition of the Sunday Times
Cabinet has approved the appointment of Commodore (retired) M.B.N.A. Premaratne of the Sri Lanka Navy, as the new Commissioner General of Excise.
Villagers in Nirmalapura, Daluwa, Norochcholai today staged a protest over an incident where a group of Navy officials and sailors had assaulted a resident in the area over night, Police said.
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