The Hon. Mayilvaganam Jegatheeswaran
The Hon. Mayilvaganam Jegatheeswaran stated that over half of total expenditure is being absorbed by debt servicing, with Rs. 2,617 billion in interest and Rs. 4,495 billion in total debt service, limiting resources for development. He rejected claims that the Northern Province received no allocations, citing Budget provisions for Mannar Hospital, pipe-borne water in Jaffna and Kilinochchi, road widening and rehabilitation projects, and Rs. 1,285 million to NAQDA for sea turtle hatching in Mannar and Jaffna.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, please grant me one more minute.
¶ 02 We are also paying Rs. 2,617 billion in interest, with total debt service of Rs. 4,495 billion, while allocating Rs. 4,485 billion for people’s development — totaling Rs. 8,980 billion in expenditure. More than 50% of total spending goes to debt service (principal and interest). If that portion could go to development, the country would progress much faster — we aim to realize this during our term.
¶ 03 Some Members said no allocations were made for the Northern Province. Let me cite figures: Rs. 230 million to develop the Mannar Hospital emergency and casualty units; Rs. 6 billion to provide pipe-borne water to Jaffna, Kilinochchi and suburbs; funds for widening Murunkan–Silavathurai and Mankulam–Vellankulam roads; rehabilitation of Avarankal–Thondaimanaru and Jaffna–Ponnalai roads; and for the first time, Rs. 1,285 million allocated to NAQDA to hatch sea turtles in Mannar and Jaffna districts. Thank you.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Monday, 10 November 2025 ·No. 22753 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Mayilvaganam Jegatheeswaran. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 November 2025. No. 22753. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/20579