The JVP announced that it will vote against the Budget and take all necessary steps to defeat it. The party’s parliamentary group comprising 24 members would cast their votes against the Budget, its Parliamentary Group Leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said at a press conference yesterday.

"We considered two factors before deciding to vote against it. First the content of the Budget and the conduct of the Government. The Budget proposals read out by the President failed in both aspects. Thus, our politburo decided to vote against and defeat the Budget in its third reading scheduled for December 15," MP Dissanayake said.

The content of the Budget was merely a large number of words attempting to depict a rosy picture but in reality it gave a mandate to the Government to further exploit the people and provide its cronies the licence to swindle public funds, he said.

"The budget proposals attempt to say it had provided Value Added Tax relief to public. It is proposed to reduce the VAT by 2 percent and in the meantime there is a new tax of 2 percent added to these goods at the airport and the harbour. So the prices will either remain the same or increase."

The Budget lacks long term strategies to develop the country or any short term strategies to provide relief to the masses suffering from rapidly rising cost of living, he said. "But, on the other hand it proposes to allocate Rs 6000 million to save the Mihin Air Project which had earlier suffered a colossal loss of Rs 3200 million due to corruption. The government has so far failed to punish the swindlers, or initiate any inquiry against those who were responsible for this waste."he said.

Public servants had been promised meagre sums as salary increases which would not match new taxes such as phone taxes, airport taxes, nation rebuilding taxes etc, he said. "Private sector and estate sector employees had been pushed from the frying pan to the fire. They also struggle under the same economic crisis but nothing had been done to relieve their burden."

This government has surpassed almost all previous ones in corruption, fraud, embezzlement and waste, he said. "Day by day the Government marches towards dictatorship. Suppression of

media is increasing. Implementation of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees more democracy has been shelved. More recently it had entered into a secret pact with India to devolve power secretively. It is no secret that nepotism and favouritism is rampant" MP Dissanayake said.

"Considering these factors any sensible party should not favour the Budget. In addition to opposing the it, we also will take to the streets to create awareness against the Budget and the forces in its favour. We would do everything to defeat this Budget," he said.

Referring to the UNP’s alternative Budget he described it a joke. "The UNP leader recently appointed a shadow Cabinet and gave the Finance Minister’s post to Ravi Karunanayake. That mock Budget gives all relief to the public and spends every cent on development, but when they had the chance of producing real budgets in 2002 and 2003 they pruned down the public sector and forced the masses to tighten their belts. The alternative budget of the UNP is the biggest joke it had displayed recently," he said.

The JVP has 23 seats in Parliament. Originally it had 41 and gave 2 seats to the SLFP. Four MPs Nandana Gunatilake, S. Amarasinghe and Anuruddha Polgampola were sacked on disciplinary grounds. Twelve MPs deserted the party to form the National Freedom Front under the leadership of Wimal Weerawansa. After MP Wasantha Samarasinghe resigned to contest the last provincial polls, the party’s number of MPs was reduced to 23.