News
Sri Lanka to miss budget revenue target for 33rd year running in 2024
State of the budget report estimates 14% shortfall in revenue against budget projection
Sri Lanka is projected to fall short of its budget target on revenue to GDP (gross domestic product) for the 33rd consecutive year in 2024, according to the recently released ‘State of the Budget Report 2024’.The State of the Budget Report is compiled annually by Verité Research and published on PublicFinance.lk, Sri Lanka’s premier platform for economic insights.
The report provides a robust analysis and objective assessment of the fiscal, financial and economic estimates in Sri Lanka’s annual budget. It mirrors the scope of a budget report that is expected to be published by the parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (COPF), with the same aim: of helping improve informed engagement with the budget, both in public and in parliament. The State of the Budget Report by Verité Research has consistently been more accurate on budget outcomes than projections of the government, which are approved by parliament. It thereby forms an important additional input for professional economic analysis and decision making in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has not met a revenue to GDP target set in a budget since 1991. Most recently, the parliamentary committee on Ways and Means reported that tax revenue fell 13% short of the budgeted target in 2023.
For 2024, the government is expecting revenue of LKR 4,164 billion, a 42% increase from its revised projections for 2023. However, the State of the Budget Report projects a 14% shortfall, with revenue of only LKR 3,570 billion.
In the report, 61% of the projected shortfall is attributed to overestimation of revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT). The remaining 39% is attributed to the overestimation of revenue from corporate income tax, personal income tax, Social Security Contribution Levy (SSCL), and customs import duty.
Sri Lanka has the highest interest-cost-to-revenue ratio in the world and reducing this ratio is critical for macroeconomic stability and sustainability. The budget for 2024 expects to lower this ratio to 64%. However, the revenue projections in the State of the Budget Report, together with the government calculation of interest costs, suggests this ratio will exceed 70%, as it has in the last few years. Sri Lanka will, thereby, fall short of the economic recovery plan agreed with the IMF, on what economists consider a critical indicator of debt sustainability.
An Australian woman has given birth to rare, naturally-conceived identical quadruplets after a pregnancy described as “extremely high risk” by the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
The four girls, who were delivered via caesarean section at 28 weeks and four days on 14 July, were monozygotic quadruplets – where a single fertilised egg splits into four embryos.
The hospital said the girls’ mother, 34-year-old Jenitar Na’amoana, and her husband Jortham, already had four children and were taken by “immense surprise” when told to expect quadruplets.
Dr Alexa Bendall, who cared for the mother from the start of her pregnancy, estimated identical quadruplets occur “at one in every 15 million pregnancies” and said “but to share the same placenta – this is unheard of”.
Bendall, who is a maternal foetal medicine specialist and obstetrician, said such a pregnancy was very high-risk, with the hospital admitting Na’amoana as an inpatient at 25 weeks so she could be monitored.
“We always said that if we could get her to 28 weeks, we would be doing well,” Bendall said.
“So the fact that we’ve got four beautiful, healthy babies born at 28 weeks and four days is incredible and we’re very happy to be a part of it,” she added.
“Jenitar has taken everything in her stride from day one… she has somehow dodged every complication and risk for both herself and her babies,” Bendall said.
The newborn girls have been named Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and also Alexa, after Alexa Bendall, who described it as “a beautiful tribute”.
The babies will stay in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit until they grow to full term and are “currently doing extremely well”, Bendall added.
The parents’ other children are between one and 10 years old and the mother has recently launched an online fundraising campaign to help buy a van with at least 10 seats.
In a message alongside the fundraiser, which has already received over A$37,000 (£19,261) in donations, Na’amoana wrote: “Our four precious miracles have arrived safely, and while our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, the reality of caring for four newborns at once has brought challenges we never could have imagined.”
Naturally conceived quadruplets are extremely rare, with doctors estimating the odds at about one in 700,000 births.
(BBC)
… bribe giver departs Colombo port
The Merchant Shipping Secretariat (MSS) is investigating a complaint received from the Captain of an Indonesian flagged vessel Sensho that he had to pay an official USD 5,000 bribe to facilitate what our sources called port state control inspection.
Sources said that the cement carrier arrived at the Colombo Port, on Friday, and departed after having passed the rigorous inspection. Responding to queries, sources said that after paying the bribe, the vessel’s Captain has lodged complaints with MSS and the Commission to Investigate Allegation of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
In spite of the government’s high profile anti-corruption drive there seemed to be fresh cases, sources said, adding that MSS had received a comprehensive complaint. The vessel had departed Colombo for Jeddah, sources said.
“The issue at hand is whether there have been unreported cases of MSS personnel receiving bribes,” sources said, acknowledging that the Captain, instead of immediately bringing the demand for USD 5,000 bribe to the MSS, had paid it and departed Colombo. (SF)
An opposition political group, styled as Dinana Dakuna, has accused the Committee of Public Finance (COPF) of protecting the masterminds behind the USD 2.5 mn theft from the Treasury.
Commenting on the recent COPF report on the theft, the group has alleged that the all-party parliamentary grouping made an attempt to shift the blame to the Central Bank as part of a cover-up. It has described the COPF report as a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth.
The group said that the COPF conveniently asserted that the theft took place due to the inexperience of officers concerned, thereby diverting the attention from those who perpetrated it.
An alleged attempt to portray the collapse of the administrative set-up that led to the USD 2.5 mn theft as a human resource problem, has also been questioned by Dinana Dakuna.
Rare identical quadruplets born in Australia
Showers will occur in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle and Matara districts
Merchant Shipping Secretariat probes bribery scandal
Theft of USD 2.5 mn: Dinana Dakuna claims COPF trying to protect mastermind
COPF chief slams security sticker scam
CAA urged to protect soap users
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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