Dy. Minister clarifies misleading reports on President’s 2026 expenditure

Reports circulating on social media claiming that the President’s expenditure allocation for 2026 has been increased threefold has been clarified by the Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando.

Accordingly, the Minister points out that the relevant information is incorrect and misleading to the general public.

Explaining further in this regard, Deputy Minister Anil Jayantha said:

“This comparison is completely wrong. They claim that the President’s expenditure has been increased threefold. In fact, the information they used to calculate this is incorrect. When presenting the 2025 Appropriation Bill, they showed Rs.2,900 million. That Rs.2,900 million is the amount that should be included in the budget proposals for the year 2025, and that is what is being presented as the draft. Then, the 2025 expenditure head includes two additional allocations that we specifically add later Rs.5,050 million for the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project through the Presidential Secretariat, and Rs.1,000 million for research and commercialization.”

The Minister stated that the correct allocation for the year 2025 was Rs.9,000 million, and that the amount presented for comparison was also Rs.9,000 million. He added that the 11.37% mentioned included funds allocated to the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project as well as the research, and therefore, the initial comparison was technically incorrect. 

Minister Anil Jayantha explained that this mistake was the reason behind the misleading news. 

He further noted that, apart from this, the budget had been managed very well and the funds were allocated appropriately within the President’s budget.