Leader of Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued a press release stating that Sri Lanka is caught up in a ‘vicious cycle’ of increasing election-related govt. expenditure, increasing govt. debt and increasing taxation.

Budget 2019 has promised various provisions to the general public, however, this year being an election year “will naturally lead many people to suspect that all provisions are election-related,” the Opposition Leader says.

“The government seeks to justify extending Samurdhi benefits to an additional 600,000 families on the grounds that ‘deserving families’ had been kept out of the scheme for political reasons.” The release said.

He further says that the government had ruled the country for over four years, however, it has ‘suddenly’ become aware of this alleged long-standing injustice.

“The rhetoric of the government makes it obvious that the additional 600,000 Samurdhi recipients will be selected on political criteria for reasons more to do with elections than with poverty alleviation. There is an inherent contradiction in the government claiming on the one hand that poverty has been reduced and then increasing the number of Samurdhi recipients by over 40%,” the release says.

Rajapaksa stated that the total outstanding government debt has increased from Rs 7,391 billion in 2014 to more than Rs 11,859 billion by the end of 2018, which amounts to an increase of 62%. Stating that this increase in debt has been incurred for paying for the cost of inducing people to vote for the Yahapalana Government, the Opposition Leader said that these ‘enormous’ borrowings were not spent on any development work.

The complete press release issued by the Opposition Leader is as follows:

Country Caught Up in Increasing Govt. Expenditure, Debts and Taxation - Mahinda by Ada Derana on Scribd