The Hon. R. M. Gamini Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, today is the final day of the Second Reading debate on the inaugural Budget of the National People’s Power Government. Over a full week, many issues were debated.

¶ 02 This inaugural Budget has, while acknowledging positives and removing negatives, several distinctive features that form a foundation to lift our country several steps above where it is today and along its historical path.

¶ 03 It elevates social, economic, and political culture to a new level. The entire framework rests on three pillars: first, transforming the economy into a production-based economy by increasing total production processes. In contrast to previous Budgets that emphasized expanding services and a service economy, this one aims to expand production and convert the economy accordingly.

¶ 04 The second pillar is to bind the entire populace to the economic process—every segment, field, and corner—so that the results and benefits of production flow throughout the country, from Kollupitiya to Embilipitiya, Kirulapone to Kebithigollewa, to Wellawaya, Monaragala—everywhere. This is a novelty, contrasting with earlier Budgets.

¶ 05 The third pillar is ensuring that the economic fruits of production are fairly distributed to all on the basis of social justice—not “milk for Colombo, cucumber for the village,” but fair distribution to public servants, private sector, estate sector, workers, fishers, youth, street children, children in rehabilitation camps, residents of orphanages, and citizens with disabilities. Everyone should fairly share the benefits. That is what this Budget enables.