The Hon. Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, there is nothing new to add about the merits of the President’s Budget — the people know it well. I watched how the Opposition behaved yesterday. I thought they would go out and admit the truth and the positives of this Budget, but they did not. Fine — the Opposition can also present what they see as negatives; that is why there is an Opposition. But look at it on your feet, not on your head. If you stand on your head, everything looks distorted. Some have viewed this Budget upside down. Where there were confusions, the President himself clarified them immediately. There is nothing more to argue.

¶ 02 We know how Finance Ministers used to read Budgets here. The President left no room for further doubts — he addressed questions from both Government and Opposition. Now what are they doing? Let me give a village council anecdote about two “members” who tried to outdo each other with special “fruit juice arrack” for annual parties — each year the guest praised his own cousin’s brew as better, until finally the host brought the cousin’s own brew and the guest still said his cousin’s was top. Likewise, even if we offered them the finest “grape juice” Budget, they would still say there is nothing special. That is the reality.

¶ 03 Stand on your feet and find the truths here. Under what conditions did we prepare this Budget? In what state was the country? Some of these criticisms are what you could level at our fifth or last Budget five years from now, not at the first ones. Our 2025 Budget was effectively for eight months, yet someone spoke as if it covered 365 days. Within those eight months we have achieved progress; two months still remain this year, and work continues. As Chair of the Colombo District Coordinating Committee, I know our last Budget’s progress will reach around 80%, maybe 70% in some places. But we are working to get to 80% across districts. Previously, did progress ever exceed 50%? Now, in 2025 we are over 60%. So the claims that the Government is failing are false — it is an attempt to create a wrong impression on TV.

¶ 04 This 2026 Budget gives new life to the progress from the last one. We were a nation of “queue-standers” for years — not me personally, but people’s lives were spent in queues; no discipline in institutions. Now we have instilled discipline and control, and we will further streamline the state sector through this Budget — digitisation, recruitment of 75,000 to the public service to make institutions efficient. Did anyone in the Opposition mention these positives?

¶ 05 This is a Budget made to rebuild lives, not to keep people in queues. It stabilises casual workers, pays state interest to top up senior citizens’ deposit interest, and more. We are not a Government that merely talks; we take responsibility for every person subjected to injustice, proactively, not waiting for them to complain. We aim for a just society — do not lecture us that someone said this or that; we are on the right path for the people, not abandoning our course.

¶ 06 Thank you, Hon. Deputy Chair.