Reducing corruption RCB POLL ON THE INCOMING BUDGET of the budget deficit

Reducing widespread corruption in Sri Lanka is the biggest step towards cutting the budget deficit, an island-wide opinion poll by Colombo-based Research and Consultancy Bureau (RCB) has revealed. The pre-budget poll with the joint collaboration of the Business Times (BT) found that most of the 1,317 respondents spread across eight districts in Sri Lanka gave an 82.8 per cent vote towards ‘minimizing corruption’ as a step towards cutting the budget deficit.

Interestingly ‘changing the foreign debt policy’ secured a 67.8 vote from the respondents who picked more than one choice among five choices offered under the question “what steps should be taken to reduce the budget deficit”.

The RCB street poll was conducted in the districts of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Kurunegala, Badulla and Ratnapura over a 2-week period and was based on budget expectations by Sri Lankans.

The poll had eight questions with a choice of answers ranging from three to five, all based on the budget and its links to national, provincial and family development. Respondents often provided more than one choice per question.

Some 92 per cent of the respondents agreed that the budget focus should be on national development and 82.6 per cent said they hoped for ‘no corruption’ from a national developmentfocused budget.

To the question “what are you expecting from the budget towards achieving a family’s development’, 90.9 per cent opted for ‘reducing

The RCB street poll was conducted in the districts of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Kurunegala, Badulla and Ratnapura over a 2-week period and was based on budget expectations by Sri Lankans. The poll had eight questions with a choice of answers ranging from three to five, all based on the budget and its links to national, provincial and family development. Respondents often provided more than one choice per question.

the cost of living’while ‘increasing salaries’ secured a 90.8 per cent vote as respondents provided more than one choice.

Asked to comment on the view that the government had implemented a proper tax collection mechanism, 64.6 per cent ‘disagreed’ in the overall tally across the eight districts of which Colombo gave a 50 per cent vote to the ‘agree’ choice and 33.5 per cent to the ‘disagree’ category.

To the question “the government is properly handling the cost of living”, 66.2 per cent of the respondents ‘disagreed’with this view.

Some 81.7 per cent ‘agreed’ that the government has a lot of local and foreign debt.