Sunday Nov 16, 2025
Sunday Nov 16, 2025
Saturday, 20 September 2025 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Government has gazetted the 2026 Appropriation Bill which sets total expenditure at Rs. 4.54 trillion for the year, with the outstanding stock of borrowing capped at Rs. 3.8 trillion.
The borrowing was estimated at Rs. 4 trillion in the 2025 Budget with total expenditure at Rs. 4.2 trillion and debt servicing estimated at Rs. 4.5 trillion. Revenue for 2025 was estimated at Rs. 5 trillion.
Big-ticket allocations scheduled in the gazetted 2026 Appropriation Bill include the Finance, Planning and Economic Ministry, at Rs. 634.8 billion in total (Rs. 343.8 billion recurrent and Rs. 290.9 billion capital), Health and Mass Media Ministry at Rs. 555 billion (Rs. 450 billion recurrent and Rs. 105 billion capital), Defence Ministry at Rs. 455 billion (Rs. 395 billion recurrent and Rs. 60 billion capital), and Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education Ministry at Rs. 301 billion (Rs. 231 billion recurrent and Rs. 70 billion capital)
The President’s Office is allocated Rs. 2.7 billion for recurrent expenditure and Rs. 8.7 billion for capital, totalling about Rs. 11.4 billion, while the Prime Minister’s Office is set at Rs. 900 million recurrent and roughly Rs. 76.5 million capital, for a total of about Rs. 1 billion.
The official presentation of the 2026 Budget is scheduled for 7 November when Finance Minister and President Anura Kumara Disanayake delivers the Budget Speech in Parliament.
