A series of review meetings on the implementation of the 2026 budget proposals began on Thursday (30), with the first session held at the Presidential Secretariat under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, NewsFirst reported.
Thursday’s session focused on the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs. Discussions were also expected to cover preliminary planning for the 2027 budget proposals.
The review of 2026 budget proposals relating to the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government is scheduled to follow the next day.
The meetings pick up a ministry-by-ministry format the President has used before. A similar round of budget proposal reviews was held at the Presidential Secretariat in June, and separate sessions have been convened this month with the Ministry of Industry and on public transport ahead of the next budget cycle.
The exercise is aimed at checking how far allocations approved for the current year have translated into delivery, a recurring concern in Sri Lankan public finance where capital budgets are frequently underspent even as recurrent costs run to target.
The timing places the reviews between two fixed points. The Finance Ministry has set out a 2027 budget framework built on a projected 7% growth rate, and the 2027 budget speech is scheduled for November 12. Departmental submissions for next year are prepared over the intervening months, which is why the sessions are covering current-year implementation and next-year planning together.
The government has kept to a tight fiscal path since taking office, reporting a budget surplus in the first months of the year while continuing to operate under the terms of its debt restructuring commitments.
