MP Herath misrepresents total interest payments

On 28 May 2019, Divaina reported that MP Vijitha Herath made the following claim:

In 2018, while total government revenue was Rs. 1,920 billion, interest payment on debt was Rs. 2,088 billion and exceeded the revenue by Rs. 168 billion.

The 2018 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) reports the following as provisional estimates: total government revenue in 2018 as Rs. 1,919.973 billion (~Rs. 1,920 billion) and total interest payments as Rs. 852.19 billion.

In making his point about interest payments MP Herath correctly cited the total revenue for 2018. But the Rs. 2,088 billion figure he reported as total interest payments was far from the correct figure of Rs. 852 billion. This also means that, contrary to what was claimed by the MP, interest payments were well 

below total revenue, rather than exceeding it.

Therefore, we classify the MP’s claim as FALSE.

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