Defence and Urban Development Ministry gets lion’s share

Appropriation Bill presented to Parliament

October 18, 2011, 8:45 pm


By Saman Indrajith

The Appropriation Bill for the year 2012, was presented to Parliament yesterday by Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne.

The total estimated expenditure for 2012 is Rs 2,220 billion with recurrent expenditure up from Rs. 1,029 billion in 2011 to Rs. 1,109 in 2012 while capital expenditure will go up from Rs. 938 in 2011 to Rs 1,111 billion next year.

The new Ministry for Defence and Urban Development, coming under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, will get the highest allocation, Rs. 230 billion for 2012, up from Rs. 215 billion that was allocated to the Ministry of Defence in 2011.

The Urban Development Authority (UDA) previously functioned as a separate department under the Ministry of Defence with effect from November 2010.The Ministry of Economic Development headed by Minister Basil Rajapaksa will get more than Rs. 104 billion, up from 75 billion in 2011 while there is also a steep rise in the allocation made to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, which is also headed by President Rajapaksa. It will go up to Rs. 124 billion from the Rs. 72.5 allocated in 2011.

The Ports and Highways Ministry has got over Rs. 144 billion while in 2011, the Highways Ministry was given Rs. 102 billion and Ports and Aviation Rs. 28.6 billion.

Another sum of around Rs 6.1 billion has been allocated for the Office of the President, of which 2.85 is for recurrent expenditure while the rest is for operational and development activities.

There is also an increase in the allocations for both the health and education sectors with the Ministry of Health getting more than Rs. 73 billion, up from Rs. 62 billion in 2011 while the Education Ministry will get around Rs. 33 billion, up from Rs. 30.7 billion in 2011.

The Transport Ministry has been given Rs. 53 billion, up from Rs. 45 billion in 2011 while the allocations to the Ministry of External Affairs will increase marginally from the Rs 6.6 billion it was allocated in 2011.

The Ministry of sports will also have a slight increase in its allocations for 2012 – from Rs. 1.7 billion in 2011 to Rs. 2 billion. The allocation to the Ministry of Resettlement has recorded a sharp decline — Rs. 481 million. It received Rs. 2.4 billion in 2011.

The Secretariat for Special Functions (Senior Ministers) has been allocated Rs. 293 million, of which 253 million is recurrent expenditure.