Friday, 20 December 2013 00:54
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Parliament votes on 68th Budget of independent Sri Lanka; ninth UPFA Budget
By Ashwin Hemmathagama
Our Lobby Correspondent
The third and the final vote on the Government’s Budget for 2014 will be taken up today in the Parliament, ending a lengthy process followed by the Legislature to allocate money to meet recurrent, capital and other State expenses in the coming year.
Budget 2014 happens to be the 68th Budget of independent Sri Lanka and the ninth Budget of the United People’s Freedom Alliance Government.
The Budget process for 2014 was initiated on 22 October with the presentation of the Appropriation Bill 2014 to Parliament.
This was followed by the Budget Speech delivered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 21 November.The Budget has since moved into committee and debate stage, in order to meet the Legislative requirements to ensure the Government allocations are passed constitutionally in the House. The seven allotted days for the second reading debate started on 22 November and continued till 29 November.
The Committee Stage Debate commenced on the 2 December to debate and discuss the respective estimates of heads of expenditure listed under each Ministry.
The Ministry of Finance and Planning, which happens to be the last of the ministries in this list, will have a full-day debate prior to the vote-taking this evening in Parliament with the participation of all Members.
