RIYADH, 11 December 2005 — Expatriates in the Kingdom welcomed the new Sri Lankan budget which has increased the duty free allowance of the island’s overseas workers from $1,500 to $5,000 and introduced new welfare measures to the island’s workers serving abroad.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also the minister of finance, presented his budget proposals Thursday which offered a series of relief measures to people of all walks of life including pensioners and schoolchildren. According to his budget, expatriates who have completed one year of stay abroad will be entitled to the increased allowance of $5,000. Lankans will be allowed to make use of this facility in installments spread throughout a stipulated period. The other proposals to benefit overseas workers include an insurance scheme and concessionary duty on import of vehicles by those expatriates who invest in foreign currency denominated treasury bonds for three to five years.
“It is a people’s budget, it has taken care of people of all sectors including the Sri Lankan expatriates who regularly remit foreign exchange to their country ,” Zawfir Ziard , chief operations officer of Unique Choice told Arab News. He added that the new president has fulfilled his election pledges in his first ever budget and described his efforts as an encouraging start.
Officials of the Sri Lankan Expatriates Society (SLES) in Riyadh expressed happiness at the budget proposals geared to benefit a larger section of the Sri Lankan community. “We are all happy with the new budget which has eased some of the longstanding problems of Sri Lankans living in and outside the country,” A.S.M. Illyas, SLES president, said. However, he added that the benefit of concessionary duty on vehicles should be decided on the volume of remittance of each expatriate. “Under the proposed scheme, only a segment of those investing in treasury bonds will benefit from this scheme,” he noted.
Dr. H.M. Rafeeq from Jeddah said the president had introduced these relief measures for expatriates in appreciation of their contributions. “Rajapakse is a people’s president and he understands their pulse,” he said.
Former SLES President Nihal Gamage said it is befitting that the new president has fulfilled some of the promises he made in the Kingdom when he visited as prime minister. “We were confident that he would do it, but I never thought it would be so soon,” he added.
“It’s a common man’s budget. President Rajapakse has given top priority to lower middle class people in his maiden endeavor as finance minister. I am happy that he has given nutritional support to poor schoolchildren who have to be well-nourished in their childhood,” said Dr. Doric Peiris of Saudi Aramco. Cellacuddy Murugadas, an accountant at Absal Group of Companies said it was a comprehensive budget to redress the problems of the working class.