Sanity check on more handouts

PRESIDENT Anura Kumara Dissanayake has hit the election trail in full swing. Yesterday he announced at an election rally in Matara that the Government will extend the ‘aswesuma’ social welfare program to include an additional 400,000 families from June onwards while also promising 30,000 new State sector jobs.

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This he said shows that this is “a Government that genuinely cares for its people.” He said the economy is doing well enough to allow for such expenditure with foreign reserves at a 5.6 year high and the rupee in a stable position.

Already around 1.7 million people are beneficiaries of the aswesuma program. Add another 400,000 to this it will be over two million. State sector workers stand at around 1.3 million at present and with another 30,000, there will be an additional strain on already struggling State coffers.