Ravi K assures consistency and coherency in policies

By Charumini de Silva

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday assured consistency and coherency in policies stemming from the 2017 Budget presented on Thursday.

Delivering the keynote at a KPMG organised forum, Karunanayake pointed out that Budget 2017 wasn’t a document for a particular day but rather an ongoing process with a medium term outlook.

Admitting that there were ‘distortions’ during last year’s Budget, the Minister stressed that this time the entire Budget was based on the premise of President Maithripala Sirisena‘s intended results that he wants to achieve for the country and is also in line with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s recent economic policy statement.“We will certainly welcome any good new ideas based on what was presented in the 2017 Budget but the essence of consistency and coherency will be adhered to in our policies going forward,” the Finance Minister said.Karunanayake acknowledged that the entire Budget making process was a prudent one, where they got professionals and government officials together to ensure that it would be implemented from the time they spoke.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake  - Pic by Ruwan Walpola

The Finance Minister also commended the private sector for coming forward, noting that there were 2,700 proposals and many of them were practical and attainable.

“We have certainly given heed to that. We have put that into the budgetary process,” he added.

Karunanayake also said that fiscal consolidation has taken a pivotal position in the Unity Government’s strategy. “We are targeting a Budget deficit of 4.6% of GDP even though the IMF wanted it to be 4.7%,” Karunanayake revealed.

“Revenues are the areas we have targeted, but for anybody who basically earns less than Rs.100,000 per month there is no imposition at all and the cost of living has been reduced on many areas,” he pointed out. “Everybody must pay their due share in nation building and I am sure all of you will be contributing and be happy in the success story that we want to bring for Sri Lanka,” he added.