Colombo 30 August : Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremewsinghe will announce an interim budget on Tuesday with significant relief measures aimed at the poor who have been among the hardest hit by the current economic crisis, which is the most severe since the nation gained its independence in 1948.Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as Finance Minister is expected to present his interim budget for rest of 2022 that includes food rations with essential items like wheat flour, rice and dal, in addition to nutrition assistance to the most disadvantaged sections of the populace.
Other proposals contain major income-support schemes as well as a social security nets for the most disadvantaged sectors such as fishermen, farmers, and people with lower incomes and some relief for the middle class.
The budget was presented in the middle of Sri Lanka’s ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss a possible bailout plan The interim budget will cut spending on defense and major infrastructure development projects in order to benefit welfare and to pay interest on loans.
The budget for 2022 will include an increase of 20 percent in the total amount of expenditure, which will be $9.1 billion (3,275 billion LKR) for the next four months of 2022 as compared to original budget that was passed in November 2021 in which the budget was $7.8 billion (2,796 billion LKR).
The interim budget plans to reduce the deficit of the budget from 12 percent to a 9.9 percent.In addition, the the government announced that the 2023 budget that is due in November will aim to reduce the deficit to 6.8 percent.
The interim budget is scheduled to be discussed until Friday, before being put to vote.
A comprehensive budget is scheduled to be released for 2023 in November.
The financial crisis struck the country earlier in the year, causing extreme shortages of essential goods like fuel, food, medicine and hours of power outages and violence erupted on the streets that ultimately led to the downfall of the government headed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
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