2019 Budget to be presented today

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Budget 2019 - themed 'Enterprise Sri Lanka, empowering the people and nurturing the poor' will be presented to Parliament today(March 05), as the fifth budget proposal of the current government. The finance ministry stated that the budget will focus on meeting the educational, health and livelihood demands of the general public. The ministry noted that Rs.4,550bn has been allocated for the government’s expenditure this year(2019) while the estimated income is Rs.2,400bn. The government expects to reduce the deficit to 3.5%  by 2020. The second reading of the budget debate is scheduled to be held from March 6th to 12th and the third reading of the budget will be from March 13th to April 5th. The opposition states that they are more than prepared to defeat the budget while the government MPs are confident that the budget will be approved by parliament.

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