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Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Friday, 21 December 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
A Vote on Account (VoA) will be presented to Parliament today to regulate government expenditure for four months and will be followed by a Budget for 2019 in January, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday, outlining plans to include more relief measures for the public starting with a revision of the fuel price formula.
Despite fuel prices being reduced twice in the last few weeks, a further drop in prices is likely to be announced today after Minister Samaraweera said one of his first duties would be to recalculate fuel prices in accordance with the formula that was implemented earlier this year.
Since climbing to four-year highs in early October, crude prices have crashed by more than a third of their value. Heightened concerns of oversupply, reports of swelling inventories, forecasts of record US and Russian output and intensifying concerns about a slowing global economy have all placed downward pressure on the value of a barrel of oil. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is reported to be considering slashing production quotas to prevent international prices from dropping even further.
Samaraweera also emphasised that efforts would be taken to reduce the economic impact suffered by the country during the seven-week constitutional crisis which began on 26 October and it would be the priority of the new administration.
“As the first step in this effort we will present a Vote on Account to Parliament. If a legal government could not have been appointed before 1 January public finance would have been in a dangerous state and crucial payments such as pensions, Samurdhi, distribution of school books and other services would not have been made,” he said.
As a second step to normalising the function of the State, a Budget for 2019 will be presented to Parliament in January. This would include relief measures to the public, the Minister said, though he did not give specific details.
“We aim to give relief to consumers through this Budget but unlike the efforts that were made after 26 October these will be targeted to be meaningful. Even though there was much publicity created around farmers being exempted from income tax by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the reality is only 0.03% of farmers are eligible to pay taxes. Instead of these fake relief efforts we are ready to give genuine benefits to the public.”
Minister Samaraweera also played down concerns that relations between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as well as the Cabinet would be frosty given the recent tension during the constitutional deadlock.
“President Sirisena has a mandate from the people and we also have a mandate from the people. These two mandates can coexist without any problem. We are confident that we can respect these mandates and work together. During these few weeks, the cost of living increased, the currency continued to depreciate and the reputation of the country suffered. Our aim is to return these issues to normal,” he said.
Parliamentarian Wijith Wijayamuni de Zoysa was also present at the ceremony to mark the assumption of duties by Samaraweera. When asked whether Zoysa and other crossover MPs would be given portfolios, Samaraweera noted that members of the Sirisena-Rajapaksa Cabinet had an interim order imposed on them by the Court of Appeal and removing the Writ of Quo Warranto case was under consideration. Samaraweera noted that it was likely the crossover parliamentarians and others would be given Cabinet and other positions in the coming days.
