First ever Govt. expenditure report for 1Q in Parliament this week

• Govt. to take corrective measures based on report
• Not even 50% capital allocations spent
• Spends Rs. 957,365 m during the first quarter
• Recurrent Expenditure of Rs. 482,856 m and Capital Expenditure of Rs. 474,509 m

The Government’s first ever expenditure report for the first quarter of this year is to be presented in Parliament this week following Cabinet approval last week.

The report was prepared in line with the 2017 budget proposal to present quarterly reports on Government spending. This is the first time any Government is presenting such a report, which will enable MPs and the public to track the Government’s spending and the performance of each ministry.

“This is keeping in line with our endeavour to follow the Good Governance concept. It is the first time such a report is being presented. This brings more consciousness among the subject ministers to work as well,” Finance Minister Karunanayake told Daily FT on Friday.

Government expenditure for the first quarter of the year totalled Rs. 957.365 billion, which included 574.850 billion of debt financing.

Karunanayake, presenting a report on the actual expenditure at the end of first quarter of the financial year 2017 to the Cabinet, this week said that the Government had recorded total expenditure of Rs. 957.3658 billion of which 60%, amounting to Rs. 574.2503 billion, was spent on public debt servicing. The total expenditure is 26.4% of the total allocation of the year, the report said.

The majority of the ministries have failed to spend at least 50% of the capital allocations for the first quarter of the year, the report revealed.

“We have noted that capital allocations have been underutilised and we will be taking corrective measures on the issue,” Karunanayake said.

Accordingly, during the first quarter Government Expenditure has recorded a Recurrent Expenditure of Rs. 482,856 million and a Capital Expenditure of Rs. 474,509 million, the report presented to Cabinet revealed.

The Minister has also noted that at least Rs. 52 billion of the money spent was being used for the settlement of outstanding bills from 2016 in line with a Cabinet decision taken on the settlement of outstanding liabilities that had spilt over from 2016 to 2017.