International
Lanka raises defence budget despite foreign pressure
Lanka raises defence budget despite foreign pressure
AFP/Colombo
Sri Lanka’s government yesterday raised defence spending to a record Rs253bn ($1.95bn), despite international pressure to scale down the military after ending a decades-long separatist war. |
Figures presented in parliament showed the defence ministry getting its highest ever allocation for spending in 2014, marginally higher than the Rs249bn budgeted for this year.
The latest figures were unveiled as the UN Human Rights Council and other rights groups asked the government to de-militarise the former war zones in the island’s north after crushing Tamil rebels in May 2009.
There was no immediate comment from the government yesterday to the latest defence spending figures, but the authorities in the past have insisted that they need to maintain high spending to ensure that the defeated rebels do not try to regroup.
Security forces in 2009 declared an end to 37 years of ethnic war which had claimed at least 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.
Defence and police together account for nearly 12% of the government’s total estimated spending of Rs2.54tn in 2014, marginally lower than the 2.56tn this year.
Sri Lanka’s economy recorded more than 8% growth in the first two full years after crushing the rebels, but slowed to 6.4% last year. This year’s expansion is estimated at 7.5% by the central bank.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who holds both the finance and defence portfolios, is due to unveil the full 2014 budget on November 21, when he is expected to announce how he will raise money to meet state expenses.