The Government intends to continue borrowing to meet both debt obligations and expenditure needs, despite allegations of a breach in the borrowing limit. Ministry of Finance and Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle said that they would need to borrow for debt servicing as there was a shortfall in state revenue. “There is a current account deficit. That means revenues are not enough to conduct the current business including (servicing) debt interest. Even if you take out the interest, the primary balance is also negative because there is a revenue shortfall. So, we have to borrow and pay. We will not dishonour,” Attygalle told The Sunday Morning. He went on to say that a vote on account will come into effect from 1 June. The Constitution has empowered the President to continue spending and issue a vote on account for three months from the first sitting of parliament,” Attygalle said. In a recent report, think tank and analysis group Verité Research noted that the borrowing limit set by the previous Parliament in October last year was Rs. 721 billion for the period from January to 20 April 2020. However, the report reveals that the Government had borrowed Rs. 120 billion in excess within that time period. One such borrowing was the recent $ 500 million loan from China Development Bank which amounts to Rs. 96.4 billion. Government Spokesman and former Minister of Investment Promotion Keheliya Rambukwella asserted that the Government has the constitutional right to do so and referred to Article 150 (3) of the Constitution. “The article very clearly states that when there is no budget passed and Parliament has been dissolved, the president is empowered to spend for another three months from the date of the first sitting of the new Parliament,” Rambukwella said. Article 150 (3) states: “Where the President dissolves Parliament before the appropriation bill for the financial year has passed into law, he may, unless Parliament shall have already made provision, authorise the issue from the Consolidated Fund and the expenditure of such sums as he may consider necessary for the public services until the expiry of a period of three months from the date on which the new Parliament is summoned to meet.” When The Sunday Morning pointed out that this was conditional on whether Parliament had already allocated funds – “unless Parliament shall have already made provision” – which it had done in October last year through a Vote on Account to allow government spending until 30 April, the Minister affirmed that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa felt he was constitutionally empowered to continue spending. “The President is of the view that he has the right in accordance with clauses of the Constitution. But what the Opposition says is that he has to refer to the Supreme Court in a situation like this. What he (President) says is he doesn’t have to refer and that there is a clause that says that from the date of the appointment of the new parliament, the president has the right to use the Consolidated Fund for up to a further three months,” Rambukwella said. However, Attorney-at-Law Chrishmal Warnasuriya said that the Consolidated Fund could only be used for public services. “You can’t raise taxation on the Consolidated Fund. That must come with Parliament approval. What they are actually doing is relying on this clause in Article 150 (3) to continue spending.” He pointed out that Article 150 (3) was a contingency measure only and government expenditure can only be allocated by Parliament in accordance with the Constitution. “This is a contingency measure. You cannot do raising of revenue, which must be done through the budget – i.e. the expenditure that must be allocated and debated by the members of the Parliament. Because that’s the legislative function that the Constitution has cast upon the legislative, not the executive or the judiciary,” Warnasuriya said.