Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Parliament approved a budget that includes reforms to improve the country’s financial situation as it attempts to recover from its bad economic issues.
The parliament approved the 5.82 trillion rupees ($15 billion) budget, which includes a 43 billion-rupee ($117 million) relief package for those affected by the economic crisis. The budget provides for restructuring state-owned enterprises, tax increases to boost state revenue as has been asked by the IMF under a preliminary $2.9 billion bailout programme and decreased subsidies for electricity. The total foreign debt of Sri Lanka exceeds $51 billion, of which $28 billion has to be repaid by 2027.
Sri Lanka Debt
Unsustainable Sri Lanka government debt, a severe balance of payments crisis, and the impact of the COVID-19 disease led to a shortage of essentials such as medicine, fuel, and food, and soaring prices have caused severe hardships for most Sri Lankan people. Because of unsustainable businesses, most people have lost their job.
The economic meltdown triggered political issues in which thousands of protesters stormed the president’s residence in July, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who replaced Rajapaksa, has somewhat decreased fuel and cooking gas shortages, but power outages, along with shortages of medicines, continue.
