Sarvajana Balaya (SB) MP Dilith Jayaweera said on Friday (13) that the Government had failed to present a budget that offered fresh hope to ordinary people or encouraged businesses and entrepreneurs.

Speaking during the second reading debate on the 2027 Appropriation Bill, Jayaweera said that no matter how the Government played with the numbers, ordinary people were struggling to get by because the cost of living had become unbearable. He urged the Government to ask its own party cadres in villages how people were managing their daily expenses and said the President had failed to address those hardships in the budget speech.

Jayaweera said that younger generations, including Generation Z and Generation Alpha, expected concrete plans from the Government. He described the budget as conventional and said it lacked a clear strategy for meeting the Government’s revenue targets or increasing the country’s foreign reserves.

He added that many Sri Lankans wanted to leave the country and criticised the budget for failing to set out a strategy to retain skilled workers. He also said people had asked for tax relief but that the Government had offered only Rs. 750 in relief on their salaries. 

(MD)