2016 Budget will make life very easy for all – Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has said that the Budget 2016 will make life very easy for all and everyone will be happy, especially the fixed wage earners.  The Minister has said the government has no intention to put burden on the wage earners.

In terms of taxation, the rich who evade will be compelled to pay taxes whilst those who are compliant will not be burdened. According to the Ministry 60% of the affluent class are not paying taxes.  Accordingly, the economy needs to be properly structured, reformed and strengthened;, the Ministry said and added that the Budget 2016 would be one exercise.

The Ministry noted that 65% of the annual revenue is swallowed by the recurrent expenditure of the public sector salaries (Rs. 600 billion)  and pension cost of Rs. 170 billion.  If you analyse the budget cost in a different way, out of the annual revenue of Rs.1400 billion, Rs.1300 billion (93%) has to be incurred for debt servicing.

The Minister has also revealed that the government will link the subsidies with employment.  Sri Lanka spends about Rs.220 billion annually on subsidies alone. According to a survey those depend on subsidy have become lazy and the government intends to transform them in to productive work force of the country.