Secretary says public transport subsidy is only 0.15% of GDP

Amidst agitation for higher expenditure on education, an equally important sector which keeps the country on the move, public transportation’s recurrent expenditure is only 0.15% of GDP.

Speaking at the launch of the Master Plan to improve Colombo’s transportation system yesterday, Secretary to the Minister of Transport Dhammika Perera said the country’s transport sector’s recurrent expenditure was only 0.15% of GDP or in other words the Government subsidy was only Rs. 10 billion or an estimated 33% of the total cost of Rs. 32 billion.

“Globally, average government revenue is 15% of the country’s GDP, of which the recurrent expenditure of the public transport sector equates to approximately 0.15 to 0.22% of the GDP. This is an average of 1-1.5% from the Government revenue. Once we develop on this Master Plan, we will be looking to match this global benchmark at every level of implementation,” Perera said during his speech.



In Europe, for example, the subsidy amounts to 36% of the cost. Perera suggested that there was scope to increase the subsidy or recurrent expenditure to an accepted level of 0.22%.