MP Rohana Bandara somewhat promising on Budget promises

Fact Check

In parliament, MP Rohana Bandara argued that the president’s futuristic claims were unrealistic and seemed to lack practical feasibility. Among his examples to further his argument, he stated that the government had failed to fulfill 94% of the budget presented ‘in 2023’. FactCheck.lk interprets his statement as referring to budget presented for 2023.

The only public source evaluating budget implementation in Sri Lanka is the Budget Promises Dashboard (BPD) on PublicFinance.lk. At the time the MP spoke, BPD had published only a mid-year assessment (MYA) of the 2023 budget.

A budget speech outlines all the new proposed revenue, expenditure, regulatory and policy proposals for the upcoming fiscal/budget year. For 2023, BPD evaluated the progress of the 25 highest value expenditure proposals in the budget speech, out of a total of 29 expenditure proposals. Only two of the 25 expenditure proposals were classified as “progressing” as expected, indicating that 23, or 92% were not on track to being fulfilled by the MYA. This is close to the figure cited by the MP.

However, the manner in which the MP presented his example is misleading on two counts. First, he spoke of the budget as a whole without clarifying that it was specific to the 25 highest expenditure proposals. Second, he cited as for the whole year, what was in fact figures from a mid-year assessment. The end-year assessment has since been completed and found that 21, or 84%, of the 25 proposals to be not fulfilled.

In sum, the MP’s overall assertion of the poor implementation of the budget as an example of the seeming lack of practical action plans is supported by the data available. However, the manner in which he cites the data overstates the scope of what was measured in terms of budget implementation.

Therefore, we classify the MP’s claim as PARTLY TRUE.

*FactCheck.lk’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck.lk will revisit the assessment.