Fourteen of the 36 biggest spending promises in Sri Lanka’s 2025 Budget fell short of substantial implementation — nearly 40% — according to the latest Budget Promises assessment by Verité Research. The same assessment records the highest fulfilment rate the think tank has measured since it began tracking Budget implementation in 2017.
The two findings are not in tension. The share of proposals fulfilled rose from 17% in 2024 to 33% in 2025, the Daily FT reported on Monday. Counting those fulfilled together with those substantially implemented, 41% — 15 proposals — cleared that bar.
How the 36 proposals break down
The assessment tracked 36 high-value proposals, each worth Rs 500 million or more and together accounting for Rs 212 billion in allocations.
| Outcome | Proposals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Fulfilled or substantially implemented | 15 | 41% |
| Fell short of substantial implementation | 14 | 39% |
| Undisclosed — too little information to assess | 7 | 19% |
The 14 that fell short are those assessed as not reaching substantial implementation. They are a separate group from the seven classified undisclosed, where the government did not release enough information to judge progress at all.
Verité notes the improvement came despite a shorter-than-usual implementation window, because the 2025 Budget was presented in February 2025 rather than late the previous year.
Transparency improved too
Nearly two-thirds of proposals — 64% — were rated “open”. For the first time since 2017, no proposal was rated “closed”, meaning at least some information was available about every one of the 36, even where it was not adequate to evaluate progress.
Budget Promises is a dashboard maintained by Verité Research under its publicfinance.lk platform, tracking the implementation of proposals made in Sri Lanka’s annual Budget speeches since 2017.
Not reported
The filing does not identify which proposals fell short, name the ministries responsible, or say how “substantial implementation” is distinguished from “fulfilled”. It does not give the comparable 2024 figures for undisclosed or open ratings, so the transparency improvement cannot be measured year-on-year from this account alone.
No other verified newsroom was found carrying this assessment at the time of writing, so it is reported here from the Daily FT filing alone.