Sri Lanka's government is seeking an extra 61.8 billion rupees ($548.36 million) in 2007 budget funding mainly to cover salary, national security and subsidy expenditure, a document submitted to parliament showed on Tuesday.
The lion's share of the supplementary budget, or 34.8 billion rupees, will be spent on recurrent expenditure, and the balance on capital expenditure, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, said in an explanatory note on a motion for additional budget funding.
Minister of State for Revenue and Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya confirmed a motion will be presented to parliament, but declined to comment further. "It's unethical for me to talk on numbers until it is presented (in the parliament)," Siyambalapitiya said.
According to the motion, the government plans to allocate 18.5 billion rupees for public sector wages and 16.3 billion rupees for subsidies for the poor and strengthening civil security in areas captured from Tamil Tiger rebels.
The rest will be spent on development projects. The government originally budgeted 834.9 billion rupees for January-December 2007, and plans to increase state spending by 11 percent for 2008 to 925.1 billion rupees as its defence bill rises amid a new chapter in a two-decade civil war with the Tigers.
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