Sri Lanka's new interim budget was approved by the majority in parliament on Saturday, reports Colombo Page.
The Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunayaka, speaking in parliament, said that the interim budget was intended for the whole year, and was not just designed for the 100 days prior to parliamentary elections.
The TNA spokesperson, last week, accused the new government of ignoring Tamil concerns in the interim budget, labelling it as a continuation of previous policy.
"Gas, petrol prices have been reduced, therefore this is a budget to make the ordinary people happy. However, I represent Tamil people’s concerns and thousands of Tamil people needs to be resettled, but no proposals with regards to them have been cited in this budget. There is no mention of the budget allocation or proposals for those that are waiting to be resettled. [...] Every government forgets [about Tamils] in some way, this is what can be observed. Even in this budget, they forgot about the minimum [requirement of] resettlement for the Tamil people," Mr Premachandran said.
Sirisena-government ignored Tamils in budget - TNA MP (30 Jan 2015)
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