Medical Funding by Presidential Fund Increased
Sri Lanka’s President announced that funds disbursed by The Presidential Fund for medical Care will be increased to double the current limits.
The President’s Fund has apart from increasing the funding also included several other medical conditions that were previously not covered.
Observers welcomed the move and also pointed out that the income limit has been increased to Rs 200,000 meaning that more citizens were able to apply for assistance via the President’s Fund.
The Fund is operated via the Presidential Secretariat and responds to requests – amongst other matters – for funding of medical treatment and medication where the country’s free national health service is unable to assist.
Sri Lanka recently announced that all its citizens aged 18 and over must register for a tax file. It was expected that over 15 million files would then be opened although not all would be subject to income tax.
It is in that background including a steep rise in direct and indirect taxes and where mobile telephony taxes are at a record 48% and data connections at 23%, watchdogs have pointed out that the Presidential Fund lacks transparency. The Fund does not publish publicly available audited records of income and expenditure and importantly remains outside the remit of the Auditor Generals scrutiny and examination.
Sri Lanka’s Opposition leader when asked if he intends making the Presidential Fund more transparent than it is now, replied in the affirmative, saying “of course”.
