Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Finance, Capital and Public Enterprise Reforms said the loss to the country’s economy due to the recent four-day island-wide travel restrictions is north of Rs. 60 billion.
The State Minister on Tuesday (18) informed parliament on the expenses incurred by the government for COVID-19 prevention activities.
The COVID prevention expenses mentioned by the State Minister are as follows:
Relief Packages in April & May: Rs. 56,593 Million
Quarantine, Medicine & Infrastructure: Rs. 29,045 Million
Relief to families in October & November 2020: Rs. 7,073 Million
Rs. 10,000 package to quarantined home: Rs. 2,846 Million
Support for loss-making state bodies due to COVID-19: Rs. 311 Million.
Facilities offered by District & Divisional Secretariats: Rs. 102 Million
Purchasing agricultural products: Rs. 88 Million
The State Minister said the total expenses are north of Rs. 96 Billion and so far in 2021 the state had spent Rs. 41.9 Billion adding the government has spent more than Rs. 138 Million on COVID-19 prevention efforts.
102 million was spent on other facilities allocated by divisional and district secretaries. 88 million was spent on purchasing agricultural produce. All these expenses amount to 96,058 million rupees. That is 96 billion. We have already spent 41.9 billion rupees in 2021 as well. So far, the government has spent 138 Billion rupees directly for COVID-19.