Sri Lanka's parliament adopts UNF budget

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2003, 16:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday evening passed the 2004 draft budget of the United National Front (UNF) government with a majority of thirty-two votes. 112 parliamentarians voted for and eighty voted against, parliamentary sources said.

Parliamentarians of the ruling UNF and the Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) voted for the budget. Parliamentarians of the main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) and Sinhala nationalist cum Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) voted against, parliamentary sources said.

Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians abstained from voting. Eelam Peoples Democratic Party parliamentarians were not present in the House at the time of voting, parliamentary sources said.

However on Wednesday, the UNF, PA, JVP and EPDP jointly voted for the votes of defense, interior and media ministries at the committee stage debate.

Winding up the debate of the 2004 budget, the Finance Minister, Mr.K.N.Choksy, said that public servants would receive the salary increase announced in the budget in January next year. Pensioners also would receive the increase with their pension next month, he said.