Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the government will raise taxes and strengthen social safety schemes in a budget designed to help secure an IMF support deal and steer the bankrupt country out of a severe economic crisis.
Wickremesinghe was inaugurated last month after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid huge anti-government protests. The president used his first budget to outline plans to increase value added tax from 12 per cent to 15 per cent, strengthen central bank independence and reallocate government funds towards relief programmes.
Wickremesinghe said these and other policies would help to reduce the country’s debt and inflation “in the medium term”.
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