The President/Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s 2024 Budget, that could be his final one before going for a presidential election, reflects the impossibility of satisfying the conditions stipulated by the IMF more than a year ago and the expectations of a citizenry caught in a wave of unrelenting economic distress.
Revenue enhanced only by increase in VAT
Without accounting for the failure to achieve targets set out in the previous Budget, a historical legacy in Government budgeting since 1948, new plans to spend seven trillion rupees against a revenue of four trillion leaves a deficit of Rs. 3 trillion, which is an increase of 19% from the 2023 deficit, and 9.1% of GDP.
Source: www.ft.lk
