UPFA's maiden budget passes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2004, 17:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Saturday evening adopted the maiden budget of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) with a majority of 34 votes, 126 parliamentarians voting for and 92 against it. Only 218 members of 225 were present in parliament at the time of voting, parliamentary sources said.

The general debate of the budget concluded Saturday evening around 6 p.m. with the reply by Dr.Sarath Amunugama, Finance Minister.

Members of the UPFA, which included Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), Communist Party (CP), and National Unity Alliance (NUA), and members of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and dissident group of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and eight members of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) voted for the budget. One member of the JHU did not attend the session, parliamentary sources said.

Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party, Tamil National Alliance, SLMC led by Mr.Rauff Hakim and Mr.P.Chandrasekaran, the sole member of the Upcountry Peoples Front voted against the budget, sources said.

The committee stage of the budget is to commence next week and allocation to each ministry would be debated and put to vote, sources said.