Appropriation Bill for 2022: Defence gets highest allocation; Health reduced

The Appropriation Bill for the 2022 financial year was presented in Parliament on Thursday (7) by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, with the budgetary allocations for the defence, education, and finance sectors being increased whilst those for the health sector and the President being decreased when compared to the 2021 financial year.

The Appropriation Bill notes that the total expenditure of the Government allocated for the year 2022, including for both recurrent and capital expenditure, has decreased by Rs. 33 billion compared to the 2021 fiscal year. Thus, the total expenditure for 2022 is estimated at Rs. 2,505.3 billion (2.5 trillion).

The Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs. 373.1 billion for the year 2022, a Rs. 18 billion increase from the fiscal year 2021, making it the highest allocated sector. Following the Defence Ministry, the Public Services, Provincial Councils, and Local Government Ministry has been allocated the second highest expenditure of Rs. 286.7 billion. The Highways Ministry has been allocated Rs. 250.1 billion, while the Education Ministry has been allocated Rs. 185.9 billion for the year 2022, which is a Rs. 28 billion increase from the fiscal year 2021, but still below the amount allocated to the Highways Ministry, which was the case last year as well.

Despite the pandemic, the Health Ministry has been allocated Rs. 6 billion less for the year 2022, in comparison to the fiscal year 2021. Thus, the Bill has allocated Rs. 153.5 billion for the Health Ministry for the year 2022.

Meanwhile, the President’s expenditure has been decreased by Rs. 6.6 billion for the year 2022 at Rs. 2.78 billion.

It was also announced in Parliament on Thursday that the debate on the 2022 Budget will take place from Nov 12 to Dec 10.