Sri Lanka: A billion euros for war

Friday, 09 November 2007

Sri Lanka's president presented the impoverished country's largest-ever defense budget to Parliament on Wednesday. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who also serves as defense and finance minister, asked Parliament for a 20 percent increase in defense spending, bringing it to 166.4 billion rupees (US$1.5 billion; ?1 billion) from 139 billion rupees (US$1.3 billion; ?860 million) last year. Rajapaksa's budget is expected to face sharp debate over the next two weeks. If it fails to pass, the government could fall, forcing new elections.

The total government expenditure for next year is estimated at 1 trillion rupees (US$ 9.5 billion; ?6.5 billion) far in excess of expected revenues of 751 billion rupees (US$ 6.8 billion; ? 4.5 billion).

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