By Newswire Editorial
Nearly 40% of Sri Lanka’s 2025 Budget proposals fell short of substantial implementation, although the proportion of fully implemented promises reached its highest level since 2017, according to an assessment by Verité Research’s PublicFinance.lk platform.
The assessment, published through the Budget Promises dashboard, tracked 36 high-value expenditure proposals from the 2025 Budget, each allocated at least Rs. 500 million, with a combined allocation of Rs. 212.25 billion.
According to the findings, 33% of the proposals were fully implemented, while another 8% achieved substantial implementation, bringing the combined total to 41%.
However, 22% were only partially implemented, 14% recorded poor progress and 3% were classified as broken promises.
Implementation progress remained undisclosed for another 19% of the proposals, bringing the proportion that had not demonstrated substantial implementation to approximately 39%, excluding those with undisclosed progress.
The assessment also found that the proportion of fully implemented Budget proposals increased from 17% in 2024 to 33% in 2025, marking the highest level recorded since monitoring began in 2017.
The findings show that 12 proposals were fulfilled, three substantially implemented, eight partially implemented, five recorded poor progress and one was classified as broken. Progress on seven proposals remained undisclosed.
Among the fully implemented proposals were the Rs. 110 billion salary increase, the Rs. 20 billion allocation to settle SriLankan Airlines’ legacy debts, the Rs. 15 billion senior citizens’ interest subsidy programme and Rs. 10 billion in pension revisions.
Other proposals rated as fulfilled included the Rs. 5 billion allocation for maintaining paddy buffer stocks, Rs. 4 billion for rural roads and bridges, Rs. 3 billion for public transport modernisation and Rs. 1 billion for increasing the Grade 5 Scholarship allowance.
Meanwhile, the Rs. 10 billion allocation for new staff recruitment, Rs. 3 billion for digital economy advancement and Rs. 500 million for the Aswesuma empowerment programme were among the proposals classified as partially implemented.
The Rs. 5 billion Clean Sri Lanka programme was rated as substantially implemented.
Proposals assessed as having poor progress included the Rs. 2 billion district development programme, the Rs. 1 billion Vadduvakal Bridge project in Mullaitivu, the Rs. 1 billion Giribawa–Eppawala water supply scheme and the Rs. 750 million solid waste disposal project in Anuradhapura.
The Rs. 1 billion proposal to provide essential food items at concessionary prices during the New Year period was classified as a broken promise.
The assessment also highlighted significant improvements in transparency surrounding Budget implementation.
According to the dashboard, 64% of proposals were rated open, while 28% were classified as restricted and 8% as open upon request.
For the first time since 2017, no Budget proposal was classified as closed, indicating that at least some information was available for every proposal, although the information was insufficient to assess implementation in some cases.
The dashboard further showed that 81% of the total funds allocated to the 36 proposals were associated with fully implemented commitments, while another 3% related to substantially implemented proposals.
In terms of financial transparency, 91% of the total allocated funds were associated with proposals classified as open.
Verité Research also highlighted that the improvement in implementation was achieved despite a shorter implementation period, as the 2025 Budget was presented in February that year.
The Budget Promises dashboard, maintained by Verité Research through PublicFinance.lk, has monitored the implementation of Sri Lanka’s annual Budget proposals since 2017.
The findings come ahead of the presentation of the 2027 Budget in Parliament tomorrow (12) by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his capacity as Minister of Finance.
The detailed assessment, including the implementation status of individual Budget proposals, is available through the PublicFinance.lk Budget Promises dashboard. (Newswire)
