The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva
Under Standing Order No. 121(5)(i), Dr. Harsha de Silva stated that the Committee on Public Finance had completed its 70-page report on the assumptions of the Budget. He clarified that, contrary to a Daily Mirror headline, the Committee had not decided that the proposed Rs. 200 allowance for estate workers was unlawful, but had only agreed to bring related concerns to the Government’s notice.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I raise this matter concerning the Committee on Public Finance under Standing Order No. 121(5)(i). The Committee is supposed to present a report on the assumptions of the Budget and we have completed it. It is a 70-page document and the Committee went through it yesterday.
¶ 02 Sir, many Hon. Members of our Committee got in touch with me this morning regarding a headline in today’s Daily Mirror, which states, I quote: “Rs. 200 allowance for estate workers — PRESIDENT’S BUDGETARY PROPOSAL DEEMED UNLAWFUL - COPE.”
¶ 03 Sir, I would just like to make a clarification on that. Yes, that was discussed and various issues came up during the discussion on the legality of this payment, etc. But, the Committee has not taken a decision that it was unlawful. The Committee’s decision was that we should bring it to the notice of the Government, which we will do on Friday morning. So, I just want to make sure that correction is made.
¶ 04 Thank you.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Wednesday, 12 November 2025 ·No. 23378 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 12 November 2025. No. 23378. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/17275