World News | Sri Lanka's Interim Budget Passed Unanimously

Colombo, Dec 6 (PTI) The interim budget covering the first four months of 2025 was approved in parliament on Friday without a vote at the end of a two-day debate.

After last month's parliamentary election, the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake led government has an absolute majority of 159 seats in the 225 member House.

Also Read | Zainab Raza Is Daughter of Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf? Here's a Fact Check of the Viral Claim.

The government presented a vote on account on Friday while a formal budget would be presented in February for the next fiscal year.

Deputy minister of finance Anil Jayantha Fernando said that the delay in debt restructuring over the last two years had cost the country an additional USD 1.7 billion in accumulated interest.

Also Read | EAM S Jaishankar Says India, Japan and Taiwan Can Create Something 'Potentially Important' in Semiconductor Sector.

“We are hoping to complete the restructure of bilateral debt and international sovereign bonds by December 31,” Fernando said.

The interim budget would cover the cost of debt servicing and the government expenditure for the first four months of next year.

The NPP government said it would continue to honour the international commitments on debt restructuring commenced by the predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe's government.

Dissanayake and his party had been critical of the Wickremesinghe government's economic management, which led to a USD 2.9 billion dollar IMF facility.

However, the new government was hopeful of renegotiating some of the tough reforms to grant economic relief to people.

Local media also quoted Fernando as saying: “For the first four months of the Vote on Account, Rs 1,000 billion excluding recurring expenses, Rs 425 billion for capital expenditure and Rs 1,175 billion for foreign debt restructuring and other debt servicing are required.”

This was the second debate this week that the NPP government faced in parliament and secured without a vote.

The debate on Dissanayake's policy statement delivered on November 21 too was approved without a vote.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)