State Minister for Finance Dr. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says that 53% of the bills that were to be paid when the new government came into power have been paid within the past 5 months. The minister points out that it is a positive fact that more than half of the outstanding bills could be paid in an environment where there was a negative economy of 8%.
As of August 31, 2022, the value of the bills that the government had to pay was 360 billion rupees. As of January 31, 2023, the total value of bills that have been paid is 191 billion rupees. The value of bills to be paid is 169 billion rupees. 100 billion of which is recurrent expenditure and 69 billion is capital expenditure. The Minister mentions that 53 billion of them were received in the month of January.
The minister pointed out that 18.9 billion of recurring expenses to be paid are for health and medicine, 19.3 billion for retirement and gratuity, 12 billion for fertilizer and chemical supplies and they will be paid according to priorities.