Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-01-02

Preparation of the Budget for the Year 2019

- The Appropriation Bill for the year 2019 was presented in Parliament on the 09th of October 2018 and as Parliament was prorogued the approval of Parliament could not be obtained for the said Bill. In terms of the statutory provisions, a Vote on Account was presented in Parliament on the 21st of December, 2018 for covering the Government expenditure for the first four months of the year 2019 until the re-submission of a new Appropriation Bill and obtaining the approval for same and it was passed on the same day. As such, a fresh Appropriation Bill incorporating the expenditure for the first four months of the year 2019 covered by the Vote on Account has to be presented in Parliament for approval.
Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance & Mass Media, to prepare the National Budget 2019 with a view to strengthening the ongoing fiscal consolidation programmes and to achieve the following Medium Term Fiscal Targets expected to be achieved by the year 2021, was approved by the Cabinet.
(i) The Government revenue to be increased to exceed 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Production (GDP)
(ii) The Government recurrent expenditure to be limited to 15 percent of the GDP
(iii) The Government Public Investment to be maintained at 5.5 percent of the GDP
(iv) The Budget Deficit to be limited to 3.5 percent of the GDP
(v) The outstanding Government debt to be maintained below 70 percent of the GDP