The Hon. Roshan Akmeemana
Hon. Roshan Akmeemana argued that Sri Lanka’s ageing population and changing economy require stronger state support for eldercare rather than relying only on families. He said raising basic wages would improve retirement income for public and private sector workers, funded through taxes on higher incomes and capital gains. He rejected claims that the Budget was an “IMF Budget,” stating that its revenue measures targeted higher earners while supporting public investment and services.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Please grant me one more minute to conclude, Hon. Deputy Speaker.
¶ 02 Sri Lanka’s culture expects children to care for elders. But the coming complex economy means eldercare cannot fall on families alone. Hence raising basic wages improves retirement income for both public and private workers. We fund this with taxes on higher incomes and capital gains. Some call this an IMF Budget because of the primary surplus target; that is wrong. Unlike the previous Government’s regressive taxes on essentials, we are targeting the top while strengthening public investment and services.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 25 February 2025 ·No. 1741258607035810 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/26646
Cite as: The Hon. Roshan Akmeemana. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 25 February 2025. No. 1741258607035810. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/26646