The United National Party dubbed ‘Budget 2015’ , presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Parliament this afternoon, as a desperate attempt in the direction of hoodwinking the public just before an election.

“It’s like a lot of toffees thrown into the sky," UNP Parliamentarian and economist Dr. Harsha de Silva told ‘Asian Mirror’ soon after the budget.

“The government has tried to please everybody by giving something. But when you look at the inside of it, you cannot see corresponding allocations,” he said.

“The government is trying to portray that it has given a salary hike of Rs. 10,000 to the state sector employees. But when you add the previous minimum salary to the previous cost of living allowance, it shows that the salary has only gone up by Rs. 2500 this year. On the other hand, the total amount of money that has been allocated for salary hikes in the state sector is Rs. 16 billion. According to the statistics provided by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, there are nearly 1.5 million workers in the state sector. So when you divide the total allocation by the number of employees, one employee will only get a salary increase of Rs. 2700. This further substantiates my argument,” the economist explained.

When asked about subsidies and protectionist measures adopted by Budget 2015, the Parliamentarian said the people would have to pay the price for that.

“Desperation, you should know, has its own limits. To recover this money, the government will have to go for more and more taxation. It is clearly evident in this budget as well. It is the people who will ultimately pay the price for the government’s desperation,” de Silva added.

In his budget speech, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said economic policies of his government were in stark contrast to those of the United National Front Government which handled the country’s economic from 2002 to 2004. He said he never encouraged privatization of state resources and curtailing state investments.