Friday Sep 25, 2026
Friday Sep 25, 2026
Thursday, 24 September 2026 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Parliament yesterday approved Supplementary Estimate No. 05 of 2026 relating to the Ministry of Energy, providing Rs. 17.2 billion in financial assistance to relieve the public on electricity bills.
A Supplementary Estimate authorises spending beyond the allocations approved in the annual Budget. The Estimate was approved following a debate, after the Committee on Public Finance considered and approved it on 22 September, 2026.
The funds have been drawn from provisions originally allocated to Line Ministries for 2026 but identified as unlikely to be used by the end of the year. As a result, the transfer will not affect the overall expenditure ceiling approved under the Appropriation Act, No. 23 of 2025, which gave legal effect to the 2026 Budget. Nor will it affect the Government’s maximum borrowing limit.
Parliament also passed the Promotion of Export Agriculture (Amendment) Bill without amendments following a debate yesterday.
The Bill amends the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992. When the Department of Export Agriculture was restructured, new positions were created and existing positions upgraded, including a change in designation from “Director” to “Director General”. However, the relevant provisions of the Act had not been amended to match, and other related designations had not been revised either. The Bill makes these amendments.
The Bill also updates the Act’s definition of export agricultural crops, referred to as “notified agricultural crops”. The existing definition had become incompatible with current production and market conditions, and needed revising to suit the present and future export agriculture sector.
Under the revised definition in Section 19 of the Act, an export agricultural crop is any crop identified as having export potential in addition to local consumption. The crop must also be declared a notified agricultural crop by the Minister in charge of the subject under Section 2 of the Act. Paddy, vegetables, fruits, root crops and other food crops are excluded, as is any crop identified as a plantation crop.
