PARLIAMENT

It has been decided by the members of the committee on Public Finance that a series of programs should be organized under the initiative of the committee to inform all members of parliament about the nature of the current economic crisis.

The decision was taken when the Committee on Public Finance met in Parliament yesterday (06) under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Hon. (Dr.) Harsha De Silva.

The members of the Committee on Public Finance were briefed on the "Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report -2022" which was tabled in Parliament on July 27th, with a presentation by officials including the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury, Mr. Mahinda Siriwardena. Due to the various facts explained during this briefing, it was suggested to inform all members of Parliament about the current economic crisis.

Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva pointed out that the interest rate may increase with the increase of inflation. Therefore, he said that as the first program, he proposes to educate all members of parliament about the relationship between inflation and interest rate.

Also, there was a lengthy discussion about the decrease in government revenue due to the reduction of tax percentages in the latter half of 2019. Also, the impact of the Covid pandemic on the reduction of government revenue was also discussed here and the measures taken to increase the government revenue by the year 2022 were also discussed.

Minister Hon. Vidura Wickramanayake, Members of Parliament Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, Hon. (Dr.) Seetha Arambepola, Hon. M.A Sumanthiran, Hon. Harshana Rajakaruna, Hon. Anupa Pascual and Hon. (Prof.) Ranjith Bandara were present.