Special Assignments Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama said yesterday the main highlight of this budget is the expectation that the budget deficit would come down to 4.8 percent of the GDP.
Addressing a media briefing held in Colombo yesterday, he said a heavy budget deficit of 5.7 percent and 7.7 percent of the GDP was recorded in 2014 and 2015 respectively. It is expected to reduce this to 4.8 percent through budget 2018.
“We have also increased public investments significantly. Public investment which was Rs.487 billion in 2014 is expected to be increased upto Rs.761 billion through the budget.
Dr. Amunugama said that most of the people who engaged in corruption during the previous regime had purchased land and houses with their ill gotten money and that is why a capital gain tax was introduced.
The income tax revenue was Rs.198 billion in 2014 and we hope to increase it to Rs.375 billion in 2018. This income tax is applied only to rich people and we wonder why this income was much less during the previous regime. We have a doubt as who benefited from this,the Minister said.
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