2024 budget process begins with govt. presenting Appropriation Bill

By Saman Indrajith

The Budget 2024 process commenced yesterday with the government presenting the Appropriation Bill to Parliament. Pojected expenditure estimate amounts to 3.8 trillion rupees for the next financial year.The bill presented by Leader of the House Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has estimated the total government expenditure for 2024 at Rs 3,860,846,788,000.

The bill has allocated Rs 6,601,150,000 for the Office of the President, Rs 3,773,150,000 for recurrent expenditure and Rs 2,828,000,000 for capital expenditure.Rs 11,044,060,000 has been allotted as recurrent expenditure of the Election Commission in 2024.

In addition, Rs 143,000,000 has allocated as the capital expenditure of the Election Commission.Rs 723,431,495,000 has been allotted to the Ministry of Finance for the next year and of that Rs 465,498,310,000 is for the ministry’s recurrent expenditure.

The Defence Ministry will receive Rs 423,725,000,000, of which Rs 365,279,000,000 is allocated for recurrent expenses.

The allocation for other key ministries are as follows:

Ministry of Mass Media:

Rs 25,500,000,000, Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms

Rs 41,251,000,000, Ministry of Health:

Rs 410,289,998,000, Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Rs 19,612,025,000, Ministry of Trade: Rs 2,319,000,000, Ministry of Transport and Highways: Rs 403,684,000,000, Ministry of Agriculture: Rs 100,423,280,000, Ministry of Power and Energy: Rs 42,983,000,000, Ministry of Tourism and Lands: Rs 19,174,730,000, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing: Rs 42,450,000,000, Ministry of Education: Rs 237,050,000,000, Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government: Rs 886,110,000,000, Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment: Rs 74,534,000,000, Ministry of Technology: Rs 5,426,800,000 and Ministry of Public Security: Rs 140,733,500,000.