Government, Opposition to skip Budget debates of 21 ministries

The Sri Lankan Government and Opposition have come to an agreement to pass the budgetary allocations made to 21 ministries without holding a committee stage debates.

Both parties have agreed to debate the allocations to 21 selected ministries at a separate committee and to inform of the outcome to the House during the committee stage debate.

The decision not to debate the allocations of those ministries during the third reading of the Budget or the committee stage is due to time constraints in debating allocations made to 64 ministries.

Allocations made for 43 ministries would be taken up for debate during the committee stage.

The committee stage debate will be held for 17 days including Saturdays except on 10 December, from 1 to 21 December and the vote on the third reading is scheduled to be held on 21 December.

(www.colombopage.com)