Of that ‘Budget PSC’

Editorial-November 25, 2013, 8:15 pm 

A Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) has been appointed to deliberate on budgetary allocations to 26 ministries as there isn’t enough time for the committee stage debate which has been telescoped into just 16 days with only two hours allocated to each ministry. Headed by Leader of the House and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, the PSC is scheduled to put out a report to be debated by Parliament within two days. This is an unprecedented arrangement.

There are so many ministries and the budget debate cannot go on till the cows come home. It has to be over by Dec. 20, as scheduled, and Parliament has been left with no alternative but to appoint a PSC, we are told. The question is why it never occurred to the government that Parliament would not be able to carry out its fiduciary duties properly to the satisfaction of the public within so short a time frame. Was it astrological advice or the CHOGM which prevented it from presenting the budget a few days earlier?

The onus is on the Opposition to make use of whatever time available to analyse the budget critically and point out its flaws that are many. Trade unions are up in arms as no relief has been granted to the vast majority of workers and prices of food items are expected to go up. An imported reconditioned vehicle will cost as much as a new one, so to speak, thanks to a new tax.

If the Opposition is wise, it could use the on-going budget debate to mine a rich seam of public resentment. Most of all, it ought to ensure that its parliamentarians, especially those billed to speak, won’t go missing while parliament is sitting and the House won’t get adjourned from time to time for want of quorum.

The government usually succeeds in distracting Opposition members from budget debates. Last year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa kept the Opposition busy with Lamborghini, which became a household word, thanks to publicity it received from the UNP and the JVP, and thus ensured that his rivals missed the glaring holes in his budget wholesale. It looks as if, this time around, the Opposition MPs were preoccupied with the CHOGM which is gone and casino which could be tackled separately. An Opposition stalwart, it may be recalled, almost derailed a crucial parliamentary debate on the latest COPE report a few weeks ago by taking up a clash between two UNP factions. Let the budget debate be on the budget and nothing else.

At the rate new ministers are being appointed, all signs are that there will have to be a ‘Budget PSC’ next year as well to handle many more ministries; or there may even come a day when the budget debate will have to be replaced with a PSC process. Anything is possible in this country.

Government politicians’ super human feats are only too well known. A PSC consisting of some of them has already set a world record. Having inquired into a slew of allegations against a chief justice posthaste, it put out a voluminous report overnight much to the surprise of one and all. So, discussing the budgetary allocations to a mere 26 ministries and preparing a report thereon in a few days will be child’s play for the supermen and superwomen within the government ranks.

It is hoped that the ‘Budget PSC’ is only a one-off and next year more time will be allocated for the committee stage debate. Ideally, the Cabinet should be downsized drastically so that the question of lack of time will not arise. Fund allocations for each and every ministry need to be thoroughly debated.