Vote on Account in the House today

By Skandha Gunasekara The Parliament is to take up the over-trillion-rupee Vote on Account (VoA), allocating funds for the remaining four months of the year, for debate in Parliament today (27). “We will be tabling it and taking the Vote on Account for debate in Parliament tomorrow,” Cabinet Spokesman and Minister of Mass Media Keheliya Rambukwella told The Morning yesterday (26). The proposed VoA will be for Rs. 1.7 trillion with the lion’s share of approximately Rs. 200 billion being allocated for the Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils, and Local Government. A total of Rs. 180.8 billion has been allocated as recurrent expenditure while Rs. 13.5 billion has been allocated for capital expenditure. The Department of Pensions has been allotted Rs. 83.5 billion. The Ministry of Defence, which comes under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has been allocated the second largest amount of Rs. 175 billion, of which Rs. 154 billion is for recurrent expenditure for operations of the tri-forces. The Ministry of Finance, which falls under the purview of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been assigned the third largest allocation of Rs. 136 billion, of which Rs. 87 billion is for recurrent expenditure while Rs. 49 billion has been separated for capital expenditure. The VoA is to release monies from the Consolidated Fund for state expenses for the next four months of the year starting from 1 September till 31 December.