LIVE UPDATES: 2026 Budget Speech

- Secondary health services are provided through 82 Base Hospitals. The facilities of most of these hospitals have not been developed recently. 

Provisions have been made to commence the first year of a five-year programme of Rs. 31,000 million to improve the quality of secondary health services by developing these hospitals, the President added.

- President proposes to establish “Arogya” centers covering between 5,000 - 10,000 people with the aim of increasing people’s access to services aimed at primary health and well-being. 

He proposed to allocate Rs. 1,500 million to implement this concept as a pilot project in 2026 in locations such as maternity and children’s clinics, Medical Officer of Health (MOH) offices, etc., which currently provide various health services and have the necessary infrastructure. 

Considering its results, this programme will be implemented throughout the country over the next 03 years in collaboration with Provincial Councils.

- Rs. 1,500 million will be allocated from the budget for the construction of hostels in selected universities, especially in the South-East, Jaffna (Kilinochchi), Vavuniya, Eastern and Sabaragamuwa universities. 

Provisions have also been made in this year’s budget for the renovation of hostels that have not been properly maintained due to the financial crisis in the country. 

- The President said that although the number of students enrolled in universities has increased to 43,000 over the past decade, the lack of adequate facilities for them has created many serious problems. Therefore, Rs. 2,500 million has been allocated to improve common facilities such as hostels, canteens and common learning areas for students, he said.

Rs. 11,000 million has been allocated for the development of medical faculties at Sabaragamuwa, Moratuwa, Ruhuna, Uva Wellassa and Eastern Universities to sort out the issues caused by nonexistence of professorial units and laboratory facilities required for quality medical education, even though new medical faculties has been established past years.

In addition, Rs. 11,500 million has been allocated for improving facilities and research activities at universities and higher educational institutions.

- Mahapola and bursary allowances provided for university students increased by Rs. 2,500 in first budget. In 2026 also, we propose to increase the monthly Mahapola and bursary allowances for university students by Rs. 2,500 to keep pace with the rising cost of living. 

Accordingly, the monthly Mahapola allowance will be increased to Rs. 10,000 and the bursary allowance will be increased to Rs. 9,000. subsequently, the “Nipunatha Sisu Diriya Allowance” will also be increased by Rs. 2,500.

- With the aim of sending children with disabilities to school, it is proposed to allocate Rs. 50 million from this year’s budget to provide a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 per disabled child from low-income families, based on medical recommendations.

- With the aim of reducing the cost of books, equipment and stationery for a family to educate their children and ensuring that every child receives the stationery they need for their studies, the President said the government will continue the Rs. 6,000 stationery allowance provided to students in 2025 for the year 2026 as well. For this purpose, Rs. 9,000 million has been allocated under the Aswesuma Programme.

- He proposed to allocate Rs. 1,000 million from the budget to provide accessibility and sanitation facilities to public places such as Divisional Secretariats, Railway Stations, Bus Stands, Courts, Police Stations and other places for the disabled community.

It has been officially announced that 3 percent of the government service has been allocated for the disabled community, but it is not being implemented properly. Therefore, efforts will be made to recruit that 3 percent for government service in all future public service recruitments, Dissanayake said.

With the aim of encouraging private employers and increasing employment, if persons with disabilities who are able to work are employed in the private sector, we propose to pay a wage subsidy of 50 percent of the employees’ salary, subject to a maximum of Rs. 15,000, for up to 24 months. It is proposed to allocate Rs. 500 million for this purpose, he said.

- He said that although the capacity of the existing prisons is sufficient for only 11,000 inmates, there are currently over 35,000 inmates in those prisons. 

- He proposed to allocate Rs. 2,000 million to meet the urgent need for efficient prison operations, ie. the expeditious implementation of projects such as the expansion of identified prisons and relocation to recommended locations, improvement of prison infrastructure, and referral of prisoners to community programmes and detention in open prisons, in accordance with the existing legal framework.

- It is proposed to establish 10 voluntary rehabilitation centers under the Rehabilitation Bureau in 10 locations including Polonnaruwa, Welikanda-Senapura, to rehabilitate people addicted to toxic drugs.

- President said it is proposed to allocate Rs. 1,500 million to implement drug control programmes covering all sectors that are the basis for taking forward the vision of “A Nation United National Operation”.

- We introduced the Clean Sri Lanka programme as a programme that everyone can agree on, regardless of party affiliation, in order to make this country a standardized and beautiful country, the president said, adding that Rs. 6,500 million has been allocated for that programme.

- The draft Research and Development Policy of the Government has been finalized, the President said. 

- He said the National Research, Development and Commercialization Institute and the National Council on Research and Development will be established as a centralized administrative institution to oversee the entire process, and the relevant bill will be presented to parliament in 2026.

- A provision of Rs. 1,200 million has been allocated for the national programme to bring research to commercialization, he said.

- He also proposed to establish “Virtual Special Economic Zones” through the Board of Investment to practically operate in Sri Lanka, generating exports and employments.

- To attract investment, a fund will be established in 2026 to accelerate the growth of the start-ups ecosystem. An initial government grant of Rs. 1,500 million (USD 5 million) has been allocated under the Ministry of Digital Economy expenditure head for the establishment of the fund.

- “It is proposed to suspend the tax applicable to new towers constructed under this digital technology expansion programme for a period of 5 years,” he said. 

- Dissanayake said that to accelerate the spread of digital technology, a simpler and faster unique approval process will be established for the construction of digital infrastructure facilities such as communication towers. 

- Rs. 750 million has been allocated to foster innovation, provision of funds for selected artificial intelligence projects, scholarships for foreign training and development of local language datasets, and provide artificial intelligence and cloud facilities for research and development purposes in universities and schools, the President said.

- To encourage these investments, an attractive environment should be created in this sector for foreign and local investors through financial incentives, green energy use incentives, low-cost electricity at the initial stage, and concessional provision of necessary land. As an initial step, it is proposed to allocate Rs. 500 million for 2026, he said.

- “Among them, it is necessary to strengthen data security, confidentiality, privacy, and digital governance legal systems and ensure investor confidence. We are already doing that.” 

- He said Sri Lanka has a high potential to emerge as a regional hub for setting up data centers and that there are many crucial steps that need to be taken in attracting investments in data centers. 

- Further, to promote payments using the QR code system, he proposed to provide the necessary provisions through the expenditure head of the Ministry of Digital Economy to enable QR code payments worth less than Rs. 5,000 to be made free of charge.

- Accordingly, effective from January 1, 2026, all service fees for electronic payments to Government institutions are permitted to be waived, he said. 

- Rs. 1,000 million to be allocated to cover the cost of these transactions, to upgrade systems and educate the public.  A further Rs. 500 million is to be allocated to provide the necessary facilities and to carry out promotional campaigns. 

- All payment transactions with the government will be carried out through an online system in the future, and as a start to encourage this, the president proposed not to charge service fees when making payments to state institutions.

- The first Digital ID will be issued in third quarter of 2026, no matter what external forces attempt to prevent it through conspiracies, the President assured.

- Rs. 25,500 million to be invested in 2026 to develop the digital economy, and a Digital Economy Council to be established. 

- A special task force will be appointed to review the management and use of government-owned lands. 

- To increase the efficiency of state businesses, a new Public Commercial Enterprise Management Act will be introduced. It will be presented to the parliament in the first half of 2026. 

- The President said that the Strategic Development Projects Act and the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act will be amended to provide tax relief with transparency and under strict guidelines. 

- He said the government has approved projects with a total value of USD 1.3 billion within the proximity of the Colombo Port City.  

- He added that investor-friendly policies will be implemented, and a new State Enterprise Management Act will be presented to the Parliament next year.

- The President said that USD 823 million in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) had been received up to September 2025. 

- A digital system to declare assets will be established by March 2026, the President says. 

- President Dissanayake said that a code of ethics will be introduced for judicial officers in 2026 and an experts’ committee will be appointed for this purpose.- Corruption is a tax imposed on the poor and a shackle hampering the country’s development, he said.

- The President said that the government will introduce the e-procurement system very soon in order to prevent corruption and malpractice further. 

- He said that SriLankan Airlines’ debt, which has now increased to USD 210 million, still needs to be restructured and that the government expects to restructure that before December this year. 

- He said that global rating agencies, including Fitch Rating, Moody’s and S&P, have raised Sri Lanka’s credit ratings gradually, due to the progress achieved.  

- The President said the debt restructuring task has been almost completed and that the trust of local and foreign investors has been further strengthened. 

- He stated that by the end of the year 2025, they will be able to reach the country’s economic situation which existed before the economic crisis. 

- The country’s debt could be reduced to a percentage of 87% by 2030, the President said.

- He added that they are expecting the state revenue to reach 16% of the GDP this year, after two decades. 

- We are expecting the country’s official reserve assets to reach USD 7 billion by the end of this year, he said.  

- We will do our utmost to maintain inflation at a level below 5%, the President said, adding that the situation has now turned positive. 

- The President said that the incumbent government was able to reestablish state finances, economic and social stability within a short period of just one year through reforms. 

- President Dissanayake said that the government has been able to re-establish its fiscal position and achieve macroeconomic stabilisation within a year by controlling inflation and building reserves.

- “It gives me immense pleasure to deliver our second national budget,” said President Dissanayake, commencing his budget speech. 

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who arrived in Parliament, commenced delivering the 2026 Budget Speech a short while ago.

The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the Budget 2026 to be presented to the Parliament during the special Cabinet meeting held this morning (07).

Accordingly, the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill for the fiscal year 2026, the country’s 80th Budget Speech, is currently being delivered by President Dissanayake, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance.

This is the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s second budget proposal. 

Accordingly, the Budget Debate on the Appropriation Bill is scheduled to be held from tomorrow (08) to December 05. 

The second reading vote on the 2026 Budget is scheduled to be held on November 14 at 6.00 p.m.

The Committee Stage debate will be held for 17 days from November 15 to December 05.

The third reading vote is scheduled to be held at 6.00 p.m. on December 05.

The Budget Debate is scheduled to be held every day during the Budget Period, except for public holidays and Sundays, according to the Department of Communication of Parliament.

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