The Hon. Priyantha Wijerathna, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 State the relevant Standing Order. I am not obliged to answer you; I answer the House. If anything unsuitable was said, it will be removed from the Hansard.

¶ 02 Now, on the claim of forgetting: we are presenting the 2026 Budget. By my knowledge, this is about the 80th Budget or Appropriation Bill in our country; the 79th was also presented by us. From the 1st to the 78th, Budgets were presented by those who are now in Opposition. Until around September 2023, they held governing power at different times. When they first presented Budgets, Sri Lanka had surpluses and even lent to the UK after World War II. We had reserves in gold in the UK. But by their 75th, 76th and 77th Budgets, the country ended up unable to pay debts, facing shortages of essentials; people queued and fought. Now they say what we should or should not do; but they forget why they did not do those things when in power.

¶ 03 One Member said there are no toilets in Nuwara Eliya. After 76 years of governance, could you not build a single toilet in that town? Another said the prison population is high—30,000 held where capacity is 10,000. When this crisis started, who was in power? Now they ask why we are not fixing everything at once. Remember, we are doing it. Even the Opposition acknowledged during this Budget debate that we have stabilized the macroeconomy and turned a former debt-ridden Treasury into one with surpluses. Do not panic; we remember exactly where we are driving this economy. Our first Budget was presented last March; the second is aligned with the first. We are moving forward step by step to build a prosperous country as per our policy statement.

¶ 04 Thank you.