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Highest ever defence budget passed

The Sri Lankan government has passed the highest defence budget in history Tuesday, after it passed in Parliament with a majority vote.

The budget comes despite the war having officially ended more than two and a half years ago.

The defense budget has now increased from 215 billion rupees (about 1.92 billion U.S. dollars) in 2011 to 230 billion rupees (about 2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012.

Research organization Verite commented to Shanghai Daily,

"It is clear from the lack of opposition protest that large defense expenditure, despite the end of the war, has become normal in Sri Lanka."

See a breakdown of the defence budget in our earlier post:

2012 budget fosters militarisation (Nov 2011)

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