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SJB says NPP Govt falls short on economic lawmaking

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The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) on Wednesday said the National People’s Power (NPP) Government has failed to deliver on its legislative agenda, noting it had not passed any of the 11 laws promised in the 2024 Budget to strengthen Sri Lanka’s investment climate and economic framework.

SJB lawmaker Ajith P. Perera told Parliament the government had overseen the “least productive” session in five years, enacting only 10 bills on its own initiative, far below previous years’ tallies.

He contrasted this with 30, 46, 34, and 50 Acts passed in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively.

Perera noted that the 2024 Budget proposed 11 key reform laws, including the Investment Security Act, Public Property Management Act, Public Commercial Companies Act, and Microfinance and Debt Regulation Authority Act yet none had been enacted.

He said that the 2026 Budget now promises to introduce only eight of those laws, dropping three.

He also criticised the government’s handling of bribery and corruption, arguing that despite President Dissanayake’s lengthy Budget address on the topic, no adequate funds were allocated to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).

“The Director General himself has admitted before the Public Finance Committee that the Commission lacks sufficient resources,” Perera said, alleging that “this government has money to buy double cabs, but not to fight corruption.”

The SJB MP further charged that since the NPP government assumed power, not a single bribery or corruption case had been referred to the Special High Court established in 2015 to hear such cases, questioning whether this implied that corruption had simply ceased to exist.

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