Parliament approves the Second Reading of the 2014 Budget presented with the prime intention of moving forward the country, with a majority of votes.
154 members voted in favour of the budget while 55 members cast their votes against it. Accordingly the Second Reading of the budget was adopted with a majority of 99 votes this evening. All public representatives allied with the Government cast their votes in favour of the budget. The Tamil National Alliance, the United National Party and the Democratic National Alliance voted against the budget.
President Rajapaksa presented the budget in Parliament on the 21st of this month. The debate on the Second Reading then progressed from the 22nd. The debate lasted several days. Minister Basil Rajapaksa joined the debate as the final speaker of the Government group.
The Minister said that there was a breakdown of the economy in the past and the infrastructure in the country were destroyed. There were no proper investments. As such the country was in a very weak state. The North and the East were taken into consideration as Provinces which were under the control of the LTTE following the agreement signed by the current Opposition Leader at that time. The Minister said that when the President assumed office, talks had stalled.
The Minister pointed out that he was making references as many throughout the budget debate attempt to project a incorrect image of the Northern issue to the world. Statements were made that the Government had done nothing to the North. The Northern polity is aware that even people’s representative had no opportunities of visiting the Province. The British Prime Minister who is not in a position to visit the Northern Ireland had been able to visit the North when he was in Colombo. President Rajapaksa when he assumed office the first concrete decision he took was to grant the fertilizer subsidy to the cultivators to make the country self-sufficient in rice.
Minister Rajapaksa said that the Government has today succeeded in granting a vast amount of foreign exchange that was drained out of the country to the farmer fraternity. It should be mentioned the investments made in the country during the Government’s term of office.
The Minister told the House that the Western and Southern Province have been provided 100 percent electricity. In the Central Province it was 96 percent, North Central Province 91 percent, Sabaragamuwa 93 percent, Uva 89 percent, Eastern Province 82 percent, Northwestern 95 percent and the electricity provided to the Northern Province was 72 percent. Only 1051 million rupees had been invested in higher education. But in 2013 it was increased to 4221 million rupees. It is a 300 percent increase. Investments in the health sector had also been increased. In 2013 it was 120,823 million rupees while in 2014 it was 145,546. This, Minister Rajapaksa added is a 255 percent increase.
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