Third Reading of Budget 2021 passed with 2/3 majority

The Third Reading of the Budget for the year 2021 was passed in the parliament with a two-thirds majority a short while ago.

Reportedly, 151 parliamentarians voted in favor of the proposed Budget while 54 voted against it.

Accordingly, the third reading of the 2021 Budget has passed in the parliament by a majority of 97 votes.

However, members of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) were not present in the chamber at the time of voting.

The debate of the Committee Stage or the Third Reading of the budget proposal commenced on November 23.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, presented the second reading of Budget 2021 in Parliament on November 17 and it was passed in the parliament on November 21 with a majority of 99 votes.

Under the new budget proposal, the estimated Government revenue for 2021 is Rs. 1,961 billion and the total Government expenditure is Rs. 3,525 billion. As such, the difference between the revenue and the expenditure is Rs. 1,564 billion.

Government plans to maintain the budget gap at 9 percent of the GDP and the expected economic growth rate for 2021 is 5.5 percent, the Premier said during the budget speech.