The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake questioned whether Parliament’s constitutional authority over public finance under Articles 148, 149 and 150 had been violated by declaring a debt standstill without parliamentary approval. He also raised concern that, according to the Minister’s answer, some debt-related payments were selectively made rather than uniformly suspended, and stressed that such decisions affecting the national economy require parliamentary oversight.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, my fundamental question regarding the Minister’s Answer is this: the financial powers of this Parliament guaranteed by the Constitution appear to have been violated. Under Articles 148, 149 and 150 of the Constitution, the control of public finance lies with this Parliament. From the Answer given, it is clear that without Parliament’s approval, a debt standstill has been declared in this country. Not only that, the Minister says, not everything was suspended as a whole, but certain payments were selectively made. Parliament is not a local council. The Minister has answered here on the entire economy of the country.
¶ 02 Hon. Minister, I have only five minutes to ask all these questions.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 19 February 2026 ·No. 23328 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 February 2026. No. 23328. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30320