10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Colombo· 9 April 2025 ·Committee report: Committee Report: Committee on Public Finance (VAT and Aswesuma)

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Hon. Harsha de Silva stated that he had invited all MPs to a symposium on poverty assistance, but no Government members attended. He emphasized that the event was conducted by recognized academics and was intended to address the non-partisan need to ensure assistance reaches the poor. He said he requested that the presentation be printed and sent to the Speaker for circulation to all MPs, noting that the Committee on Public Finance holds such discussions to support national policy work rather than for political purposes.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, I invited all 224 MPs to that symposium. Unfortunately, not a single Member from the Government attended. The Centre for Poverty Analysis is not a private fly-by-night outfit. It was conducted by Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Chairman of the Board of Study of the Department of Economics of the University of Colombo, together with professors from the University of Peradeniya. This is beyond Government-Opposition politics; we all accept that assistance must reach the poor.

¶ 02 Therefore, I have asked that the presentation be printed and sent to the Hon. Speaker for circulation to all. From the Committee on Public Finance, we conduct such discussions not for political ends but to work as a country.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Wednesday, 9 April 2025 ·No. 1747807095041246 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 April 2025. No. 1747807095041246. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3796