Sri Lankan Parliament approves interim budget

Sri Lankan parliament on Friday approved the interim budget to cover public expenditure for the next four months following weeks of political crisis that led to government dysfunction.

The Vote on Account (VoA) for Rs 176500 crore was approved with 102 MPs voting in favour and six Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MPs voting against.

Parliamentarians from President Maithripala Sirisena's United People's Freedom alliance (UPFA) were not present at the time of the voting.

The newly-appointed Cabinet of ministers yesterday passed a proposal for a vote on account to allow state spending after the political and constitutional stand off which plagued the island's government since October 26 ended last week.

The budget for 2019 was to be presented to Parliament on November 5, but the political crisis erupted on October 26.

"This needs to be approved to cover the expenses such as wages, pensions payments for the next four months. We were to present the Budget on November 5 but we were denied the chance to do so by the events that happened on October 26," Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.

Speaking during the debate in Parliament, the leader of the opposition, Mahinda Rajapaksa, accused Prime Minster Wickremesinghe government of giving into the IMF dictates in its economic policy management.

Sirisena on Thursday named a 30-member Cabinet while rejecting some of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's nominees and retained control over the security forces and police.

The new Cabinet was appointed after an unexpected delay of three days since Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister on December 16 following weeks of political crisis that led to government dysfunction.

The Cabinet formation delayed as President Sirisena did not agree with some nominees from the list submitted by Prime Minister Wickremsinghe.

On October 26, Sirisena sacked prime minister Wickremesinghe and installed former president Rajapaksa in his place, triggering an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Sirisena also dissolved the 225-member Parliament and called for a snap election on January 5. He publicly vowed not to reinstate Wickremesinghe.

However, Wickremesinghe was re-appointed as prime minister by Sirisena following a Supreme Court order, ending the 51-day political standoff in the country.

Analysts said that Cabinet appointments indicate that Sirisena and Wickremesinghe were still at loggerheads and the country's worst political crisis is far from over.