Nearly Rs 10b for President's Office, 50% hike from 2017

The 2018 allocations to the President's Office will increase by about 50% over the 2017 allocations, according to estimates in the 2018 Appropriation Bill presented to Parliament this week.

In 2017, Rs 6.4 billion was allocated to the President's Office, which has been increased to nearly Rs 10 billion (Rs 9,983,525,000) for 2018.

Of this amount, Rs 2.7 billion will be for Recurrent Expenditure, while the rest will be for Operational and Development activities under the President’s Office.

The estimated total Govt expenditure for 2018 will be around Rs. 3,982 billion (Rs 3,982,367,818,000), which is an increase of Rs 2,162 billion from the previous year’s allocation of Rs 1,819 billion (Rs 1,819,544,000,000)

The highest allocation for 2018 will be for the Defence Ministry, as it was for last year. Its 2018 allocation is about Rs 290 billion (Rs 290,711,375,000), of which, about Rs 260 billion will be for Recurrent Expenditure and about Rs 30 billion for Capital Expenditure.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera will present the 2018 Budget to Parliament on Nov.9.

The estimated total Govt expenditure for 2018 will be around Rs. 3,982 billion (Rs 3,982,367,818,000), which is an increase of Rs 2,162 billion from the previous year’s allocation of Rs 1,819 billion (Rs 1,819,544,000,000)