COLOMBO (NewsRadio); Day Eight of the committee stage debate of the 2023 Budget will get underway in Parliament this morning.
Parliament is scheduled to convene at 9.30am. Expenditure heads of the Ministries of Education and Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment are scheduled to be debated between 9.30am and 7pm today.
The debate on the third reading of the 2023 Budget or the committee stage debate got underway on Wednesday, the 23rd of November.
Members of Parliament debated and approved the allocations made for Ministries of Industries, Trade, Commerce and Food Security and Plantation Industries through the 2023 Budget yesterday.
The committee stage debate will continue for 13 days until the 8th of December.
The final vote on the 2023 Budget is scheduled to take place at 5pm on the 8th of December.
Meanwhile, the second reading of the 2023 Budget was passed with a majority of 37 votes in Parliament on Tuesday, the 22nd of November.
121 Members of Parliament voted in favour of the Budget while 84 MPs voted against it.
The division on the second reading of the 2023 Budget was called by Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella after Members of Parliament debated the 2023 Appropriation Bill for seven days in Parliament.
The second reading of the 2023 Appropriation Bill or the Budget speech was delivered in Parliament by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Minister of Finance on the 14th of November.
This was also the maiden annual budget speech of President Wickremesinghe.
According to the 2023 Budget estimates, the total revenue and grants is expected to be Rs. 3,415 billion.
The total expenditure is estimated to be Rs. 5, 819 billion.
Accordingly, the government is aiming to reduce the budget deficit to 7.9 percent next year from an estimated 9.8 percent this year.
