Insights

Free and Open Access to

Public Finance Data and Analysis

Filter by year

Sri Lanka's Fiscal Indicators Before COVID-19

Does Sri Lanka have the fiscal space to deal with COVID-19? Sri Lankan fiscal indicators were weak even before the pandemic, & The Economist recently ranked Sri Lanka at 61 among 66 countries on 4 measures of financial strength.

Sri Lanka's Borrowing Limits

Can the government borrow more than what it is permitted by the Parliament? The Vote on Account held in October 2019 allows the government to borrow up to Rs. 721 billion for Jan- April 2020. However, the government borrowings have already increased more than the legal limit.

Sri Lanka’s health expenditure is lagging behind its peers

Sri Lanka’s public health expenditure has stagnated/declined as a share of GDP, relative to peer countries and the world. Adequate investment in public health enables better preparedness for emerging challenges such as the COVID-19 pan...

Sri Lanka’s Fiscal Outlook 2020

The International Monterey Fund estimates that our budget deficit will cross 6 per cent in 2019 and projects it to be around 8 per cent in 2020. This is due to the fall in revenue estimates. This will result in, (1)

Tax Revenue Categories

How could COVID-19 affect government revenue? The government of Sri Lanka recently restricted imports of several goods, except for essential items. However, this could...

What Happens When a Government Body Runs Out of Money?

When a government body runs out of money, Parliament must approve a supplementary allocation for additional funding. On the 5th of February, the Minister of Finance submitted a request to increase total government spending by 156 billion Sri...

Overestimations in Revenue Expectations

Governments have consistently overestimated revenue and these deviations have increased in value since 2014. Overestimations in revenue compel governments to (1) decrease expenditure, and (2) increase borrowings. Watch our

Flawed Rationale Behind EPF Re-entering the Stock Market

At the end of 2018, the EPF resolved to re-enter the stock market despite substantial losses and allegations of mismanagement on EPF’s equity investments in the past.

Cigarette Tax Indexation: Getting it Right and Getting it Wrong

The indexation method introduced in 2019 Budget addresses two pervasive problems in cigarette taxation: (a) lack of regularity and consistency in tax increases, and (b) failure to reduce affordability of cigarettes.

page 45 of 47

‹
1
2
...
45
...
46
47
›