President authorises Rs. 1 trillion in 3rd VoA 

 President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

• Relevant circular issued by Finance Ministry Secretary
• Expenses to be strictly controlled and no new projects June-August
• Rs. 644.1b for recurrent expenditure and Rs. 398.8b for capital expenditure
• Funds to be used for uninterrupted State services

By Chandani Kirinde

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has authorised Rs. 1,043 billion for expenditure from the Consolidated Fund from 1 June up to 31 August in terms of provisions of Paragraph (3) of Article 150 of the Constitution.

The relevant circular was issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance S. R. Attygalle this week to all secretaries to ministries, chief secretaries of provincial councils, and heads of departments.

Of the authorised amount, Rs. 644.1 billion will be for recurrent expenditure while Rs. 398.8 b will be for capital expenditure.

The money will be utilised for uninterrupted government services, COVID-19 eradication activities and other essential services.

The circular said that State revenue has decreased further during the past three months due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as natural disasters and with the restrictions on the limit borrowings, the available funds will have to be carefully managed with the allocated amounts.

The funds are only to be utilised for projects that have already been started and chief accounting officers all State institutions were informed that there should be no additional expenditure on staff facilities, supplies or on new projects.

This is the third Vote on Account for the year with the first one that was passed last year lapsing in April and the second Vote on Account ending in May. Only the first Vote on Account received parliamentary approval.

The President authorised Rs. 1,224. 8 billion to be drawn from the Consolidated Fund for expenditure from March up to the end of May.

Govt. settles Rs. 196.6 b of Rs. 240.7 b dues of Yahapalana regime

• PM informs Cabinet of measures taken to settle overdue payments

The Government has settled Rs. 196.6 billion of the Rs. 240.7 billion unresolved bills payable for the services, supplies and contracts received by the previous Government, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena said.

A sum of Rs. 44 billion remains to be paid, he added.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, had informed the Cabinet that measures have to be taken to make the payments gradually, even under difficult financial circumstances.