Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has accused the government of manipulating economic statistics and running a fraudulent fiscal programme ahead of the 2027 Budget.
Addressing a pre-budget workshop attended by opposition lawmakers, university academics, and industry specialists, he alleged that authorities were hiding true economic figures to suit their political agenda.
The Opposition Leader said that the government was imposing excessive taxes that went beyond International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements, pushing the primary surplus target from 2.3% to 5.4% and raising state revenue from 13.9% to 15.4% of gross domestic product.
He said the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) had repeatedly put forward proposals to ease the tax burden on ordinary citizens.
Challenging the official poverty line of Rs 17,000 per month, he said the state relied on an outdated benchmark of 2,030 kilocalories per day that ignored Medical Research Institute data showing active men and women required 3,340 and 2,680 kilocalories respectively.
He cited World Bank assessments indicating that nearly 60% of Sri Lankans were living in poverty and questioned whether the Aswesuma welfare scheme was reaching genuinely needy families.
To fix welfare distribution, he proposed replacing Aswesuma with a revised Jana Saviya programme overseen by local government officials.
Premadasa also criticised the handling of the IMF programme, noting that the 42% vote share won by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the 32% secured by the SJB meant 74% of voters had backed renegotiating the bailout deal.
Instead of amending the agreement as promised during the election campaign, he said the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had retained the existing terms and pursued policies more neoliberal than those of the previous administration.
He claimed that debt restructuring advised by Lazard had protected wealthy financial institutions through Macro-Linked Bonds while shifting the burden onto workers' EPF and ETF retirement funds.
Following recent opposition discussions with the IMF, he called for a responsive agreement that safeguarded Sri Lanka's 22 million people rather than financial elites.
To revive the domestic economy, the Opposition Leader urged stronger support for agriculture, fisheries, labour, and intellectual sectors, noting that about 250,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises had shut down since the 2022 economic crisis.
He added that a dedicated development bank was essential to ensure young entrepreneurs and struggling businesses could finally access the capital they needed to recover.
