Of the Rs 1,719 billion that Sri Lanka has allocated for capital expenditure this year – including the Rs 500 billion supplementary allocation towards Cyclone Ditwah relief – roughly Rs 240 billion has been spent, according to Department of National Budget Director General Jude Nilukshan, who spoke to the Committee on Public Finance last week (11).
“Of the Rs 1,719 billion allocated for capital expenditure, Rs 500 billion is for disaster spending. When the Rs 500 billion is removed, the Rs 1,380 billion is the capital expenditure. Around Rs 240 billion has been spent up to now,” Nilukshan said, explaining Sri Lanka’s current capital expenditure so far this year.
In November 2025, prior to Cyclone Ditwah, Sri Lanka had allocated Rs 1,380 billion in capital expenditure within its primary expenditure limits. Post-Cyclone Ditwah in December, it had allocated an additional supplementary allocation of Rs 500 billion for recovery and reconstruction purposes of homes, businesses and other infrastructure that had borne damage.
During the discussion, Nilukshan said that he believes that this year’s capital expenditure may not be completely spent. “Procurement has started, and it has proceeded. However, in terms of data, we believe that by the end of the year, there will be unspent capital. Since we cannot tell how much will be unspent at this time, for now what we take from it is Rs 20 billion.”
This expenditure was raised during a discussion the Committee on Public Finance had over the Rs 20 billion supplementary estimate for arranging provisions to provide relief to the people directly affected by the war situation in the Middle East. This allocation had been approved in Parliament last week.
According to Nilukshan, as there is no mechanism to allocate excess funds from one ministry to another, the proposed supplementary estimate allocation was utilised to facilitate the proposed use of funds, within the existing circumstances, as a means to provide relief.
“Based on what we can do, since there is no mechanism to allocate the excess funds in one ministry to another, we use the supplementary estimate proposal system.”
“Primarily, this Rs 20 billion covers the expenditure on the fuel subsidy, and Rs 5 billion in payments for other suppliers, concessions for electricity consumers, and payments for NSOs (National System Operators).”
Additionally, he informed the committee that the allocation will also cover relief for Aswesuma recipients, relief for farmers in the Yala season, provision of Rs 5,000 worth of fertiliser for smallholder tea estates, relief for the fisheries community, subsidies for electricity consumption and fuel expenses.
He mentioned that the Rs 20 billion was drawn up as an initial step of relief expenditure, and that allocations have the capacity to go up to Rs 100 billion, without affecting total expenditure or debt limits.