Final vote on 2021 Budget tomorrow at 5pm

By Saman Indrajith

Final vote on Budget 2021 is scheduled to be taken tomorrow at 5 pm,.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, presented the budget to Parliament on 17 Nov. and the second reading of it was held from 18 to 21 Nov. At the end of the second reading a vote was taken and the budget was passed with a majority of 99 votes with 151 voting in favour and 52 against.

The Committee Stage debate or the third reading of the Budget began on 23 Nov. and is scheduled to end tomorrow (10).

On 03 Dec, after the debate on the expenditure heads under the Ministry of Defence, the Opposition called for a division. It was the 10 th allotted day for the committee stage debate on Budget 2021. The expenditure heads 207 under which the Department of Archaeology was mentioned was approved with a majority of 132 votes, 137 voting in favour and five against.

Under the new budget proposal, the estimated government revenue for 2021 is Rs. 1,961 billion and the total government expenditure is Rs. 3,525 billion.

The gap between the revenue and the expenditure is Rs. 1,564 billion.

The projected economic growth rate for 2021 is at 5.5 percent, the Premier said during his budget speech.