The budget speech for the year 2023 is scheduled to be presented to Parliament today by President Ranil Wickramasinghe as the Finance Minister.
At 1.30 pm, the next year’s budget document is scheduled to be presented to Parliament as the 77th budget document of the country.
The government expenditure estimate in this year’s budget is Rs. 7,885 billion.
It is an increase of 29.2% compared to last year.
Apart from the recently presented interim budget, the 2023 budget presented to Parliament today is the first annual budget presented by Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe after assuming the office of President.
After the President presented the budget to Parliament today, the debate on the second reading of the budget will be held from tomorrow to the 22nd.
The voting for the second reading of the budget is scheduled to be held on the 22nd at 5 pm.
From the 23rd of this month to the 8th of December, the third reading of the budget will be debated.
On the afternoon of December 08, the third reading of the budget or the final reading vote will be held.
If by any chance the government loses the budget in that poll, the cabinet should be dissolved according to Article 7 (2) of the Constitution.
Due to the budget, steps have been taken to implement the special security arrangements in the Parliament today as it was done in previous years.
Today the public gallery is restricted to diplomatic visitors only.
As the Parliament Car Park will be closed on this day, vehicles arriving by MPs will be directed to the respective car parks.
The Speaker has also requested the Members of Parliament to be accompanied by a driver as far as possible while coming to the Parliament today. If the Members of Parliament themselves are driving their own vehicles, drivers belonging to the Parliament staff will be employed at the entrance of the Members of Parliament to drive their vehicles to the designated car park and park them.
In addition, on this day, the traffic police and nearby police stations will implement a special traffic plan.
