Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka would turn its income-expenditure deficit into a surplus by 2020, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said while speaking at a ceremony held over the weekend in connection with the distribution of financial relief to tea factories which were affected by floods in May this year.
“The Government earned criticism for increasing the VAT. However, State revenue has increased as of today despite all these criticism. Income/expenditure deficit in the year 2014 was 1.5 percent. We were able to enhance our income in 2016 and thus reduce the deficit up to .02 percent. We expect to have surplus income by 2020,” the Prime Minister said.
He said Sri Lanka’s debt service grew by 233 percent from 2005 to 2015.
The Prime Minister said a greater percentage of debts during this time were commercial borrowings and the country’s revenue was not sufficient to pay them off.