2021 govt. revenue only 41% of total expenditure: Publicfinance.lk

The government revenue in 2021 was only 41 percent of its expenditure, which was inadequate to cover even its recurrent expenditure, an analysis of the public finance data by Verite Research revealed.

The Colombo-based economic think tank pointed out that the revenue fetched falls short of the two largest recurrent expenditure components cumulatively, which are salaries and wages and interest payments. 
Sri Lanka’s revenue has been insufficient to cover its recurrent expenditure since 1983. 

“The gap between recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure in the country continues to grow, proving to be difficult to reduce, while revenue too has not kept pace with expenditure levels for decades,” Verite said in its blog in publicfinance.lk.

In an effort to close the growing revenue-to-recurrent-expenditure gap, Verite Research suggested that serious revenue-boosting measures are required.