Historic budget made by both UNP-SLFP ministers – Ranil

By Saman Indrajith-November 12, 2016 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe described the budget 2017 as a foundation for a national economic policy that would not change the country’s development process whenever there is a government change.

Participating in the second reading stage debate on the budget proposals, the premier said that they had been formulated with the input from both two main parties – the UNP and the SLFP. "This is a historic budget for it had been made by group of ministers from the two main parties. It is a positive trend. The proposals are not hard and fast as in the case of previous budgets but more flexible," he said.

The Prime Minister said that even though the two main parties are together now, they may take separate paths in the future but under the present unity government, economic policies will be put in place that will remain constant despite political changes.

"This is the best opportunity to make new economic polices taking the strengths of the two main parties into consideration so that when there is a change in government, one will not say these are the other parties polices and change them," he said.

"In the past year, we had to overcome the immediate economic challenges we faced having to pay off massive loans and had to resurrect the economy which was suffering from bad investment. We have scaled one mountain but is a steeper mountain ahead but we will overcome them too," he said.

The premier said that there may be some difficulties to face in the next two to three years but with the changes that are being put in place, the economy will move forward.

He also spoke on forging new economic alliances with the Free Trade Agreements with China, India and Singapore in the pipeline while Pakistan and Iran too would be the others that the government seeks stronger ties.

"We have to develop relations with the Southern Indian states, other Bay of Bengal nations  as well as Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar where there is accelerating economic growth. We also have to develop new industry as, except from the garment sector, revenue from other sectors including the Middle East will decline," he said.

The Prime Minister said the Budget is meant for the masses and that the additional revenue the government earns will go towards education, health and housing.

He said many measures were introduced in the Budget to further strengthen the free education system in the country. "I have benefited from the free education system in the country so has the President as well as many others here. We will further strengthen it and make 13 years of schooling mandatory," he said.

Quoting Chinese reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, the premier said that the economic path of the government of national unity would not be confined by ideologies. "Deng Xiaoping once said ‘I don't care if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.’ Similarly we should not care if the colour is green or blue or red, we will work together to build an economic policy that would be retained even if there are changes in government."