Unruly scenes precede first week of Committee Stage debate of Budget 2024

The first week of the Committee Stage debate of Budget 2024 began on Wednesday (22) in the backdrop of unruly scenes witnessed the day before, with bad blood stemming from that incident affecting proceedings throughout the week.

Before proceedings began on Wednesday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that he had suspended Water Supply State Minister and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Sanath Nishantha from attending sessions for two weeks due to unruly behaviour the previous day.

The incident had occurred when a group of SLPP MPs including Mr Nishantha aggressively approached and obstructed Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa whilst he was speaking.

Mr Nishantha was filmed grabbing some documents held by Mr Premadasa which the latter was using to raise several questions in relation to the Supreme Court ruling that found several persons including Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa responsible for causing the country’s economic crisis.

Earlier on Tuesday (21), the government had been able to comfortably pass the Second Reading of Budget 2024 with a majority of 45 votes. The Second Reading received 122 votes in favour and just 77 against.

Among the heads of expenditure that were taken up for debate this week were those of the President, Office of the Prime Minister, Parliament, Independent Commissions and the Ministries of Defence, Public Security, Power and Energy as well as Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development.

The National People’s Power (NPP) requested a vote on the President’s expenditure head on the first day of the Committee Stage debate on Wednesday, with NPP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake raising issue over funds that had been allocated for former Presidents.

Mr Dissanayake pointed out that Rs. 84 million had been allocated in the previous Budget for the upkeep of former Presidents while that amount had been increased to Rs. 110 million in the 2024 Budget. He noted that the former Presidents include Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa, who the Supreme Court had recently ruled were responsible for the country’s economic crisis. “We do not believe this House should allocate any funding for them given that the courts have found them to be responsible for the economic crisis,” said Mr Dissanayake. The head of expenditure was passed by a majority of 59 votes, with 62 votes cast by the government side in favour and just the three NPP MPs voting against from the opposition.

A division was also called on Thursday (23) for the head of expenditure of the Ministry of Defence at the request of All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam. The expenditure head was passed by a majority of 68 votes, with 76 in favour and 8 against. The ACTC and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs voted against.

Participating in the debate on the heads of expenditure of the Ministries of Defence and Public Security, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka said while allocations for armed forces have been increased in Budget 2024 compared to the previous year, no effort had been taken to modernize the military since the end of the war. Foreign training for recruits had been greatly curtailed, affecting both preparedness and morale, said the MP. The army is using outdated battle tanks while the Air Force is down to just one serviceable attack jet, he further claimed.

“It is this level of lethargy towards strengthening the armed forces that led to the war being prolonged for 30 years and led to the terrorists developing better capabilities than us. If we continue to neglect these areas now, we are sure to regret it later,” he insisted. MP Fonseka also criticized government plans to “rightsize” the military to 100, 000. “Just because the economy of a household collapses, it doesn’t mean the inhabitants neglect repairing the doors, windows and the roof of the house. If they fail to do that, it will only make it easy for thieves to come in,” he added.

Despite there being no war, and despite the fact that Sri Lanka is broke and is unable to repay its debt, the country continues to spend “astronomically” on defence, ACTC Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said. He said that defence expenditure is 11% of the Budget this year while it’s 3.6% for public security, making it 14.6% of the Budget in total. By contrast, only 10.6% of the Budget had been allocated for health while for education it’s 6.2%.

A country which is broke, if it wants to come out of this economic crisis, needs to produce and needs to export. Nevertheless, the funds allocated for sectors crucial for production and export are dismal, Mr Ponnambalam pointed out. For industries, just 0.2% of the Budget had been allocated while it is 2.6% for agriculture and just 0.18% for fisheries the ACTC leader added.

Mr Ponnambalam said that there is nothing to justify spending an astronomical amount on defence in the absence of a war. The fact that it is being done can only mean one thing, and that is that the government is not prepared to recognize the rights of the Tamil people, he said. “On the contrary, you want to trample upon their rights. You want to deny them their rights and their due place, and to carry on doing that, you know that you will keep on making enemies,” he told the House.

The absence of violence does not mean that peace exists, State Minister of Defence Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon said. Just because there is no war, the government cannot neglect its responsibilities towards ensuring national security. “Separatist and extremist ideologies continue to be prevalent both within and outside the country and we believe we should remain vigilant about such threats. It is a lesson that was learned the hard way through the Easter Sunday attacks.”

Mr Tennakoon meanwhile, also countered that defence spending had in fact decreased during recent years. “We have begun to right-size our military. Our approved cadre for the army is 208, 000 and we have made plans to reduce it to 100, 000 by 2030. The navy will be reduced to 30, 000 and the air force to 20, 000,” he explained.

Committee stage debate continues next week.