National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP yesterday said the government should not present a budget in November as its term would end in March 2009. He said that it would not be ethical to go ahead with the presentation.

Following media reports that the government would not present the budget in keeping with an agreement with the IMF, State Revenue and Deputy Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya assured that budget proposals would be presented in Parliament on November 07.

Addressing a press conference at the NFF head office, Battaramulla, Weerawansa said that the next parliamentary election would elect a new administration under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but it would definitely deviate from policies of the incumbent government. Promising that the President would definitely cut down the jumbo-sized Cabinet, the MP said that factor should not be ignored while preparing the next budget.

Now that the LTTE had been wiped out, the next budget should be designed to meet the challenging task of developing the entire country and boosting productivity.

He said that the government could present a Supplementary Estimate in Parliament for the next few months as many other governments had done in the past, without wasting time and energy on a useless task.