PARLIAMENT

It was revealed at the Committee on Public Finance that 74% of the 2020 fiscal revenue has been received so far and that amount is Rs 1124 billion out of the expected total government revenue of Rs. 1580 billion.

This was revealed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury S.R. Artigala in response to a question raised by the chairman of this committee Parliamentarian Anura Priyadarshana Yapa regarding the government revenue for the year 2020.

The Committee on Public Finance met in Parliament yesterday (26) under the chairmanship of the Parliamentarian Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Members of the committee State Minister Susil Premajayantha and Members of Parliament M. A. Sumanthiran, Dr. Harsha de Silva, Dilan Perera, Anupa Pasqual and Sahan Pradeep were present at the meeting.

The Committee met to review the allocation of funds within six weeks of the presentation of the Budget in accordance with Standing Order 121 and to submit a report to Parliament on the estimation.

Dr. Harsha de Silva pointed out that it is very important that all data related to the budget should be extremely accurate as it will have a severe  impact on the future economic situation of the country, both locally and internationally.

At that time the Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa asked the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury whether there could be any positive expectations regarding the revenue for the year 2020 and, he noted that while the economic downturn in the first quarter of the year was real, expectations for the second and third quarters were very positive.

Members of the Committee on Public Finance State Minister Susil Premajayantha and MPs M.A Sumanthiran, Dr. Harsha de Silva, Dilan Perera and Anupa Pasqual, said that if the data were correct, the country's economy would be in good status. All the committee members attended also agreed to present the second report on the budget in the future.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa informed the committee that Parliamentarians Hesha Vithanage and Chaminda Wijesiri have resigned from the Committee.