The unexpected and sudden political crisis caused the constitutional coup triggered by President Maithripala Sirisena along with the prorogation of parliament till November 16 has placed officials of the Treasury in a dilemma as they are considering the option of preparing a vote on account instead of the calendar year Budget 2019.
Chairman of SLPP, Prof. G.L. Pieris told reporters that they were planning a vote-on-account after parliament was suspended until November 16.
The Ministry of Finance is awaiting for directives from the president to go ahead with the preparation of Vote on Account on Monday.
Economic experts point out that it would be appropriate to present a mini budget rather than the annual one as the country is facing a political crisis with elections around the corner.
They added that presenting a Vote on Account in view of an election is not new to Sri Lanka and previous governments have also followed this procedure before.
The Vote on Account, if presented in November, will be to cover state expenditure for a few months.
The time period (number of months) of the vote of account will be decided after the announcement of the date of elections, a government official said.
The Finance Ministry has launched the 2019 budget process presenting an Appropriation Bill making allocations for individual ministries ahead of the 2019 budget to be presented to parliament on November 5.
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