Capital-oriented Budget: Ravi K

Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake said that the Yahapalana Government’s new Budget on 20 November would be capital oriented while aiming at higher revenue rather than recurrent expenditure.

The Minister said that capital expenditure would be significantly increased in the coming Budget, much more than the previous allocation.

The Minister also said that the Budget was aiming to raise taxes in areas which had not been looked at before, without placing a greater burden on the public.

“Unknowing and unprofessionally neglected areas are being looked at for revenue generation. It will create revenue; the revenue will be greater than the recurrent expenditure of the year 2016. But the revenue plan won’t have a cost impact on the people,” Minister Karunanayake said when a group of Sri Lankan-based foreign correspondents met him in at his Ministry on Wednesday evening.

Elaborating on the prospects of the economic policy statement made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament recently, the Minister said that the Government was looking for a policy shift to change the ratio between indirect and direct taxes from the current 80-20% ratio to 60-40% ratio by 2020.