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ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers have agreed to cut down another one percent from the allocated budget for 2023 in all ministries to provide additional support to purchase medicine, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said.
Revisiting the decision to cut down 5 percent from the allocated budget from all ministries, last week, the Cabinet decided to increase it to 6 percent, by allocating one percent for the purchase of medicine after the Minister of health requested an additional 10 billion rupees.
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“The Health Minister said he needs an additional 10 billion rupees to purchase medicine in 2023,” Gunawardana told at the weekly cabinet decisions briefing on Tuesday.
“But we do not have any way to find that amount. We cannot do it with the 141 billion revenue we get per month,”
“Even though the minister asks us that amount there is no place for us to get that money”.
However, all Cabinet Ministers said, giving priority to the health sector in the country, to cut down their allocated budget by another one percent, Gunawardana said. (Colombo/ Jan 17/2023)
