Sajith says Budget 2015 full of lies; DEW corrects

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent Opposition Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa, opening the third allotted day of the second reading debate of the Appropriation Bill, charged yesterday that the Government was misleading the public with “lies” and unrealistic proposals. Premadasa said: “Budget 2015 is nothing more than a lie in my opinion. People do know that the due peace dividend didn’t reach them at all. They are frustrated with a Budget which is nothing more than a game of numbers.”

One of the many topics Premadasa spoke about was the Government’s proposal to allocate Rs.750 million in 2015 for the development of fishing women and their children. “According to the progress report of the Fisheries Ministry there are 2.6 million women engaged in the fishing industry. So, when divided, each person receives Rs.288 per annum. Pre-schools are also given a toffee by allocating them Rs.300 million to provide Rs.2, 500 per pre-school teacher. This is adequate to pay 10,000 pre-school teachers. But we have 16, 318 as per the Budget estimates of 2013. When preparing the Budget didn’t you inquire about the number of pre-schools in the country? Why don’t you give a payment for the pre-school teaching assistants? Remember that this Rs. 300 million is also to support teacher-training programs, material donations and infrastructure development,” he said. Quoting former US President George Washington, Premadasa stated that truth will ultimately prevail where there is a pain to bring it to light. “In the irrigation sector also there was another fraud in this Budget. It promises that Rs.15, 000 million will be allocated for the main irrigations and Rs.2, 000 million for small irrigations. There are 25,000 tanks and small irrigational systems in Sri Lanka. I found the number of small irrigations in the country from President’s 2011 Budget Speech. So each small irrigation will get Rs.80, 000. “Another issue lies with the Samurdhi sector. The Government pledged that Samurdhi relief will be increased to Rs.3,000 for families with four members, increased to Rs.2,000 for a family with three members and the rest will get Rs.1,000. I am sure that those who prepared his Budget speech have no knowledge about the previous Budgets. They just write something for him to present in the Parliament,” he added. In response, the Minister of Human Resources, D.E.W Gunasekara rejected Premadasa’s allegations and praised the President and the Budget. “Budget 2015 has a few key things – it is a complete Budget, which caters to all layers of the society and the vertices in the economy. It has given key prominence to human resources development. All in all it helps to create a workforce. All aspects found in the national human resources policy are included in this Budget, especially the private sector,” the minister said. “Sri Lanka is facing different barriers in terms of the global economy. The first was the economic crisis, which messed up economies. Despite the war we managed to maintain a positive growth rate in principle. Our economy is worth $ 67 billion, which very small in the global context. We are living in a world of insecurity, instability, inequality, and poverty. “We have several concerns. Although we have satisfactory foreign reserves of $ 10 billion on the other hand we have another issue – debt. What matters is our ability to manage it at a controllable level. Thirdly is an issue which none of us can control. We have failed to increase Government income. Neo-liberalism has led to a decline in the national income. We need to change our tax policy. Since 1978 the indirect tax has increased and direct tax has reduced. We need to turn this around gradually. The Government needs to explore avenues to increase tax income, especially from the middle-class.”

P’ment told massage parlours booming

In order to prevent the massage centres being used as brothels Ministry of Indigenous Medicine is looking at amending the law. Minister Salinda Dissanayake responding to a question for oral answer raised by opposition lawmaker P. Harison held out of over 3,000 massage centres operating in the country the registered with Department of Aurveda is less than 60. “There are a few ways of obtaining massage centre permit. In most occasions these institutions have registered themselves as private businesses in the Divisional Secretariats in respective areas. We don’t have the regulatory framework to inspect or to monitor the activities they conduct,” said Minister Dissanayake. “Unless they are registered at the Aurwedic Department of our Ministry we are unable to regulate them. We are in the process of amending the Act. The new Act will cover any establishment engaged in massaging,” he added. According to MP Harison there are 34 massage centres in the Anuradhapura City limits and three more in the Mhinthale area. “Government should not allow such establishments to continue. Other than in Colombo and Gampaha, the first night club is now open in the vicinity of the Sri Maha Bodhi. The Chines as well as the Thai have also started massage centres in Anuradhapura,” said MP Harison. (AH)