PM doing Fin Min job says joint opposition

Thursday, 17 December 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Wants more time during Budget debates

By Chamodi Gunawardana

The Joint Opposition yesterday questioned the fact that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe presented amendments to Budget 2016, instead of the Finance Minister in Parliament, terming it “interference.”

MP Dullas Alahapperuma told reporters Primer Wickremesinghe was in danger of playing the role of finance minister on behalf of the actual minister by delivering special statements to correct the alleged errors of the budget which was earlier presented by Karunanayake.

“According to Parliamentary procedures amendments should be presented by the same person who presented the first draft bill. The recent Budget was presented by the Finance Minister, but amendments are presented by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe,” he charged.

Criticising the budget proposal to curtail the fertiliser subsidy Alahapperuma claimed that such statements were included due to the low contribution of President Maithripala Sirisena in the Budget preparation.

“President Sirisena was the Agriculture Minister when the previous Government introduced the fertiliser subsidy. I still remember the delighted speech delivered by him at the launching ceremony. If he was really involved in the preparation of the Budget this proposal would not have been included,” the MP stressed.

Alahapperuma further alleged there was a clear difference between prior and present Parliamentary procedures and charged the Joint Opposition MPs did not have sufficient time to express their opinion in the House.

“We have informed the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya several times that we need more time to voice our arguments against the Budget. The Parliamentary agenda has only allocated 46 minutes for five MPs of the United People’s Freedom Alliance(UPFA), But it has given 70 minutes for two MPs from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and 75 minutes for four MPs from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA),” he claimed.

“This is the democracy of the so-called Yahapalana Government,” he charged.