COLOMBO: Ranil Wickremewsinghe, the President of Sri Lanka, will present an interim budget on Tuesday with major relief measures aimed at the poor who has been among the worst-hit due to the ongoing economic crisis, the biggest-ever since the island nation gained independence in 1948.
In his capacity as Finance Minister, Wickremesinghe will submit the interim budget for the remaining months of 2022, which will include food ration programmes with staples like rice, wheat flour, and dal, increasing nutritional support for the population's most vulnerable segments. Major income support programmes, a social safety net, and lower-income earners like farmers, fishermen, and the middle class are only a few of the other possibilities.
The interim budget, which was unveiled as Sri Lanka continues to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a potential bailout package, would reduce spending on defence and other significant infrastructure development projects to spend money for welfare and to pay interest on loans.
Comparing the revised budget to the initial budget authorised in November 2021, which had expenditures of USD 7.8 billion for the next four months of 2022, the total spending will rise by 20% to USD 9.1 billion (3,275 billion LKR) (2,796 billion LKR).
The interim budget also aims to lower the budget deficit from 12% to 9.9%, and the administration has stated that the fiscal deficit for the 2023 budget, which is due in November, will be reduced to 6.8%. Before it is put to a vote, the interim budget will be discussed until Friday.
A comprehensive budget is also planned to be presented for the year 2023 in November.
Early this year, as the financial crisis hit the country leading to severe shortages of essential items including food, fuel, medicine and long hours of power cut, violence broke out on the streets which ultimately led to the fall of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led government.
The Sri Lankan Cabinet last week also approved a budgetary framework which where 9.9 percent of Gdp budget deficit in 2022 will be brought down to 6.9 percent by 2023.
Sri Lanka is also aiming to bring down the primary deficit, or the deficit without interest costs, a key performance criterion in an IMF fiscal framework from a negative 4 percent in 2022 to a deficit of 1 percent in 2023 in a 3 percent of GDP correction, the EconomyNext news portal reported.
Sri Lanka Prez directed to ensure Gotabaya Rajapaksa's return
Sri Lanka hopes to increase tourism by attracting Saudi visitors
