ECONOMYNEXT — As Sri Lankans head to the polls, large majorities of voters want the government to increase spending on health and education, a poll by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) has found.
The IHP said in a statement on Thursday September 12 that, since September 2022, as the financial crisis forced the government to rethink budget priorities, the institute’s Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) has regularly asked survey respondents to identify their top two priorities for increasing government spending and their top two priorities for cutting government spending.
According to the survey, throughout 2024, the top priorities for Sri Lankans for increased government spending have consistently been health (78 percent) and education (64 percent). These were also the only areas where spending increases were supported by majorities of Sri Lankans, with support cutting across all demographics, IHP said.
Agriculture was the next highest priority for increased spending (33 percent), followed by food assistance (9 percent), housing (4 percent), and Samurdhi/Aswesuma (3 percent). Not surprisingly, the institute said, SLOTS respondents have been more reluctant to identify priorities for cutting spending, and only one spending category—housing—received majority support for reductions.
When asked what they would prioritise for spending cuts if the government lacked funds, the highest ranked items were housing (51 percent) and food assistance (44 percent), followed by Samurdhi/Aswesuma (22 percent), the police (14 percent), roads (13 percent), and the military (12 percent), the statement said.
“Support for increasing government spending on health and education was widespread across all demographics. Both poor and better-off Sri Lankans rank health (71 percent vs. 79 percent) as their top priority for increased spending. The better-off were more likely to prioritise education (70 percent vs. 53 percent), but both the poor and the rich agreed on the need to increase spending in these two areas. There were few differences based on age, although youth (18–29 years) were more likely to prioritise education spending compared to older adults (60+).
“There were clear differences by income level in how Sri Lankans viewed food assistance and Samurdhi/Aswesuma. Increasing spending on food assistance was a higher priority for poorer Sri Lankans (17 percent) than for the better-off (5 percent). Similarly, one-fourth of the poor (29 percent) prioritised it for spending cuts, while nearly half of the better-off (49 percent) supported reducing spending on food assistance. Similar preferences were seen for Samurdhi/Aswesuma, with the poor much more likely to prioritise it for increases in spending, while the better-off much more likely to prioritise it for spending cuts.
“There was no support for prioritising the army or the police for spending increases, and one in eight Sri Lankans prioritise either for reducing spending. However, poor Sri Lankans were more likely to cite the army or police as a priority for cutting spending. There are notable differences in spending priorities among different ethnic groups. Sinhala adults were more likely than other ethnic groups to prioritize health (82 percent) and education (66 percent). Meanwhile, Estate/Indian Tamil and Muslim adults were more likely to prioritize food assistance (Estate 32 percent, Muslim 27 percent) and housing (Estate 22 percent, Muslim 22 percent) compared to others.
“Although health and education have consistently remained the top two spending priorities, the percentage of people prioritizing increased spending on health has steadily increased from 58 percent in 2023Q1, reaching 87 percent in 2024Q3. This may reflect the worsening impact of shortages of medicines and staffing in the government health sector, combined with the increasing difficulties most Sri Lankans face in paying for private health care as real incomes have fallen. Meanwhile, support for spending increases on agriculture has declined.”
According to IHP, SLOTS interviews representative samples of Sri Lankan adults every day by telephone to gather their current views and situation.
“All interviews include a core set of common questions, with additional rotating sets of other questions that examine issues of topical importance. Interviews are done daily by phone by IHP employees, with respondents recruited by a national field survey or by randomly dialling mobile phone numbers.” (Colombo/Sep13/2024)