2019 Budget deficit Rs 644bn (4.1% GDP)- Min. Finance

07:10 PM OCT 02 2018

The Budget Deficit for 2019 has been estimated at Rs 644 billion, which is 4.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as per the Appropriation Bill presented to the Cabinet recently, the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media announced. 

The Ministry in a media release said that the annual state expenditure of next year would be Rs 4,376 billion.

The highest amount of allocations under the Appropriation Bill has been made for the Ministry of Defense.

Accordingly, the allocation for defense in 2019 is Rs 306 billion. Rs 221 billion has been allocated for the capital and recurrent expenditure of Provincial Councils.

The statement added, “Rs.2, 057 billion has been allocated for debt servicing in 2019. Out of this amount, Rs 1, 271 should be paid locally next year while Rs 786 billion, which is equal to USD 4,650 million should be paid to foreign lenders. The Government expects to borrow Rs 1, 944 billion from local and foreign sources for its debt servicing including the financing of the budget deficit in 2019.”
Rs 1, 456 billion has been allocated for recurrent expenditure of the public sector while Rs 856 billion has been allocated for capital expenditure.

The Government is to spend Rs 1,000 billion for the salaries of 1.1 million public servants and 600,000 pensioners and an additional Rs 220 billion is allocated to provide public welfare in 2019.
Moreover, Rs 63 billion has been allocated for a series of rural livelihood development programmes. Rs 175 billion has been allocated to develop highways and complete the Southern Expressway Development Project.

Another Rs 75 billion has been allocated to complete medium scale and massive irrigation projects including the completion of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project and the Moragahakanda Development Project.

For housing development projects and several water supply schemes, the Government has allocated Rs 50 billion equally.

The Ministry also noted that it is expected to increase Government revenue, which was 11.5% in 2014 to 15.1% of the GDP in 2019. At the same time, the surplus in the Government’s Primary Balance reported in 2017 is expected to be increased by 1.3% of the GDP in 2019.

The Budget 2019 will be presented to Parliament by Minister Mangala Samaraweera on 05 November.