Friday, 22 November 2013 06:59
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During the course of his Budget presentation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa fired a salvo at the Opposition.
He said: “I wish to remind our fiscal experts in the Opposition that our fiscal policy framework has performed better than those followed by them prior to 2005.”
“All post-1977 Governments prior to us operated higher budget deficits than the deficits that prevailed during our time,” the President said.
“The Government during 2002-2004 removed pension rights of public servants and also imposed a recruitment freeze to the public sector. At that time, no alternative to privatisation was considered and public investments were reduced, while keeping a deficit in excess of 8% and debt over 100% of GDP. This is the reality associated with our fiscal legacy.”
