News
Final vote on 2021 Budget tomorrow at 5pm
By Saman Indrajith
Final vote on Budget 2021 is scheduled to be taken tomorrow at 5 pm,.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, presented the budget to Parliament on 17 Nov. and the second reading of it was held from 18 to 21 Nov. At the end of the second reading a vote was taken and the budget was passed with a majority of 99 votes with 151 voting in favour and 52 against.
The Committee Stage debate or the third reading of the Budget began on 23 Nov. and is scheduled to end tomorrow (10).
On 03 Dec, after the debate on the expenditure heads under the Ministry of Defence, the Opposition called for a division. It was the 10 th allotted day for the committee stage debate on Budget 2021. The expenditure heads 207 under which the Department of Archaeology was mentioned was approved with a majority of 132 votes, 137 voting in favour and five against.
Under the new budget proposal, the estimated government revenue for 2021 is Rs. 1,961 billion and the total government expenditure is Rs. 3,525 billion.
The gap between the revenue and the expenditure is Rs. 1,564 billion.
The projected economic growth rate for 2021 is at 5.5 percent, the Premier said during his budget speech.
Accepting deposits from political parties and independent groups who intend to contest the forthcoming Local Authorities Election ended at 12noon today [19].
Deposits were accepted at respective District Secretariats from 3rd March 2025.
The Elections Commission has announced that the deadline for the accepting of nominations for the LA poll is set to conclude at 12:00 noon tomorrow (20).
It has been reported that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon has appeared before the Matara Magistrate’s Court this morning (19),
The former IGP had been evading arrest after the Matara Magistrate’s court had ordered his arrest regarding a shooting incident that took place in front of the W15 Hotel Pelena, Weligama, Matara, in 2023.
The government has begun recovering funds obtained by former Lands and Land Development, Environment and Wildlife Resources Minister SM Chandrasena for the Janatha Lanka Chilli Marketing Limited (JLCML), which he headed, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation Minister Namal Karunaratne said that as the Chairman of JLCML, Chandrasena had obtained a loan of Rs. 1,275,000 from the Mihintale Govijana Seva Bank in 2001.
The principal of the loan had not been repaid until the end of last year. “After we came to power, we demanded that the loan be settled. Then, we discovered that the interest on the loan had not been paid for the past 24 years, and attempts had been made to have the loan written off. We stopped that and are now in the process of recovering the interest of Rs. 1,975,233 on the loan,” Karunaratne said.
Karunaratne added that JLCML was registered as a company with the Registrar of Companies on March 21, 2001. As Chairman of the company, Chandrasena requested a loan of Rs. 10 million on April 19, 2001, for the purpose of purchasing chillies from farmers in 12 farmer colonies in the Mihintale Agrarian Service area.
The request was approved by the Mihintale Agrarian Service Committee on the same day and referred to the Anuradhapura District Agrarian Operations Committee, which approved it on April 23, 2001. However, the Agriculture Development Commissioner General recommended that a loan of Rs. 1.2 million would suffice for this purpose. JLCML took the loan and failed to repay it until the end of last year. When the matter was raised, the principal was paid, and we are now in the process of recovering the interest that was not paid for the past 24 years,” Karunaratne added.
By Saman Indrajith
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