Tuesday Oct 06, 2026
Tuesday Oct 06, 2026
Tuesday, 6 October 2026 04:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Finance Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando
Finance Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando yesterday said the Government was committed to framing the 2027 Budget within the parameters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, the first of the conditions the Fund has set for Board approval of its next tranche of about
$ 345 million.
Making a special statement after the IMF announced it had reached a staff-level agreement on the Seventh Review of the program, Dr. Fernando said the Government would meet the conditions required for the IMF Executive Board to release the tranche, adding that keeping the Budget within program parameters posed no difficulty.
He said the Government was also finalising funding programs with multilateral agencies including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which would bring in about $ 1 billion by end-2027. Debt restructuring, he said, was ahead of schedule and had exceeded expectations.
Besides the Budget, the IMF has made Board approval contingent on a financing assurances review, which will confirm multilateral partners’ financing contributions and assess progress with debt restructuring.
The assurance comes as pressure builds for fiscal easing in the 2027 Budget, which President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his capacity as Finance Minister, will present to Parliament on 12 November.
President Dissanayake told a recent rally in Akuressa that the Government would provide tax relief with the upcoming Budget and he told another rally in Gampaha that a property tax on houses proposed under the IMF program had been deferred for another year. Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake last month called for urgent measures to ease the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax burden. The President has also instructed officials to prepare proposals on broad-based concessions to encourage investment and exports.
Dr. Fernando said the Government was committed to building the necessary reserves and bringing inflation within the 5% target over the next three years. Headline inflation stood at 8% in September, according to the IMF.
He acknowledged risks from the Middle East crisis, whose course he said was hard to predict, as well as from a highly uncertain global trade environment and El Niño. The Government was committed to navigating these challenges, Dr. Fernando said, describing the latest staff-level agreement as evidence of that commitment.
