Parliament on Friday approved without a vote a Rs. 20 billion supplementary estimate intended to provide relief to citizens affected by the economic fallout of the ongoing Middle East conflict, NewsFirst reported.
Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando told the House that the supplementary estimate does not involve additional government spending or new borrowing, but rather a reallocation of existing funds to meet urgent relief requirements. “When we talk about a supplementary estimate, historically it has meant allocating additional funds, often spent based on the discretion of ministers or political interests,” Fernando said. “However, although this is termed a supplementary estimate, it is being used here to reallocate expenditure under a different head within the ministry for relief purposes. This does not increase total government spending.”
Fernando said the package had been structured to stay within the country’s pre-approved 2026 borrowing limit of Rs. 3,740 billion. “We are operating within the approved borrowing limit for 2026, which stands at Rs. 3,740 billion. We are requesting approval to proceed within that limit. As such, this will not increase debt in any way,” he added. The Deputy Minister tied the same fiscal discipline to his earlier statement that 2025’s budget deficit had fallen to 2.3% of GDP, the lowest level since 1957.
The supplementary estimate had been listed in the Committee on Parliamentary Business’s June 9-12 sitting agenda alongside rules under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act and the continuation of the adjournment debate on the Central Bank’s 2025 Annual Economic Review. The approval comes as the Asian Development Bank this week unveiled a $4 billion regional package targeting 15 governments to cushion the West Asia conflict shock, into which Sri Lanka has been folded as a fuel-import-exposed lower middle-income country. The Finance Ministry has not yet disclosed the specific line items the reallocated Rs. 20 billion will fund or which existing budget heads will be drawn down to free up the relief envelope.
