Except Fisheries Ministry, others mum about vital expenditure

There is no data to estimate the progress of 68 percent of the most significant proposals of the 2023 budget, Subhashini Abeysinghe, Research Director at Verité Research has said.Taking part in a television interview, she said they had studied 25 of the key budget proposals.

“We asked the relevant 15 institutions whether these proposals had been implemented and what progress had been made in the first six months of 2023. Only the ministry of fisheries supplied information. The other 14 institutions were very hesitant to provide information although the Right to Information act clearly states that government institutions must publish data with regards to their projects,” she said.

Abeysinghe said that they analysed budget proposals between 2017 and 2021 as well. Data was not available for 45 percent of the most significant proposals of those budgets. This has risen sharply under the Wickremesinghe administration.

She said the government was rightly focusing on the need to increase tax revenue. However, people also needed to know what their tax rupees were spent on, she said, noting that one of the main problems faced by industrialists was that there weren’t many lands available for industry. The 2023 budget proposals have spoken about establishing industrial zones in various provinces.

“In the last 20 years, Sri Lanka has not established a new export processing zone. In 2020, the National Audit Office said there had been no new zones since 2002. The 2023 budget called for the establishment of zones in western province, and in Trincomalee and Hambantota Districts. There has been no data on the progress made,” she said, adding that many other Asian countries have established hundreds of industrial zones in the past few decades.

“Starting a factory isn’t easy. You need a lot of infrastructure. Our competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have established so many industrial zones. This is why we are not getting investments although we give a lot of tax concessions,” she said. Abeysinghe said that budget proposals were indicators of where the government wanted to take the country.

“Even when there was no crisis, state expenditure barely covered daily expenses. Budget proposals are new initiatives and are often financed through debt,” she said.

The government also proposed to establish an international climate change campus in Sri Lanka in the 2023 budget. Rs 100 million has been earmarked for this in the budget.

“Is this enough to establish an international university? There are some serious issues with these numbers,” she said. (RK)