MP Pack #33 — The Interval · North-East administration, finance and the unmeasured columns
இடைவெளி · வடகிழக்கு நிதி ஏடு
Citation-only fiscal and measurement pack pairing with the Unmai desk at /unmai/desk/north-east-ledger. Reproduces government-origin figures without adjustment — Northern Province provision Rs 53,288.57m and Eastern Province provision Rs 60,053m (2025), 2026 defence ceiling Rs 440,100m, worker remittances approx USD 8.07bn (2025, no destination breakdown), and HIES 2019 poverty headcount Northern 23.8% / Eastern 18.6% against a national 14.3%. The policy artefact is the measurement gap: provincial poverty after 2019, remittance destination, provincial security footprint, land released against land held, and provincial own-revenue are not published at all.
- · UK MPs
- · Lords
- · FCDO South Asia
- · HM Treasury-facing committees
- · IDC
- · APPG for Tamils
- · Journalists
- · FCDO and IDC written questions on whether UK development and accountability policy on Sri Lanka rests on provincial data that has not been refreshed since HIES 2019
- · Questions on whether HMG holds any assessment of provincial capital-expenditure utilisation in the Northern and Eastern Provinces
- · Questions on whether the UK has raised the absence of published remittance-destination data with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka or the IMF under the current programme
- · APPG briefings on the 13th Amendment financing architecture and what provincial councils can and cannot decide
Every figure in this pack is reproduced as its publisher published it, with source, date and confidence attached. The pack makes no comparison claim beyond ratio: that the 2026 defence ceiling is several times the two provincial provisions combined is a statement about published provisions, not a statement that one was taken from the other. The strongest finding here is an absence — the columns that were never published.
Cited Tier-A evidence is open and unresolved. UK is a co-sponsor of UN HRC accountability resolutions but implementation is uneven. Statements honour memory; evidence remains under-actioned.
Statements are backed by structured packs. Each anniversary produces tabled PQs, FCDO follow-ups, and a tracked answer. Memory becomes evidence; evidence becomes policy; policy becomes repair.
Evidence anchors
Each anchor carries a stable E-id for citation in correspondence, PQs, and parliamentary submissions.
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.001Sri Lanka national budget estimates 2026 — defence ceiling
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.002Provincial councils finance — Northern and Eastern provisions, recurrent/capital split
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.003Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2019 (DCS) — provincial poverty headcount
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.004Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.005Central Bank of Sri Lanka — annual report (workers' remittances chapter)
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.006IMF Article IV — Sri Lanka country reports
- E.north-east-fiscal-interval.007World Bank KNOMAD — Migration and Remittances data
Policy asks
- UK Government (FCDO)Set out what assessment HM Government has made of provincial-level poverty in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka since the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2019, and whether HMG considers a survey now seven years old an adequate basis for development or accountability policy.
- UK Government (FCDO)Set out whether HM Government holds any assessment of the recurrent-to-capital composition of provincial provisions in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and of capital-expenditure utilisation in those provinces.
- UK Government (FCDO / HM Treasury)Set out whether HM Government has raised with the Government of Sri Lanka, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, or the International Monetary Fund the absence of any published breakdown of workers' remittances by province or district of destination.
- UK Parliament (APPG for Tamils)Convene a briefing on the financing architecture of the Thirteenth Amendment: which functions are devolved, which are centrally financed, and which provincial revenue lines are published.
Sample Parliamentary Questions
- written→ FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of poverty in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka since the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2019, which recorded headcount rates of 23.8 per cent and 18.6 per cent respectively against a national rate of 14.3 per cent.
- written→ FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department holds any assessment of the proportion of provincial provisions in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka allocated to recurrent as opposed to capital expenditure, and of capital-expenditure utilisation rates in those provinces.
- written→ FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made representations to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka or discussed with the International Monetary Fund the absence of any published breakdown of workers' remittances to Sri Lanka by province or district of destination.
- written→ FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the financing architecture of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka in respect of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils.
- written→ FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department holds any published data on the extent of land released to civilian owners in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka measured against land still held by state or security agencies.
Pack-specific safety rules
- · Never asserts that defence spending was taken from, or displaced, provincial budgets. The comparison is of published provisions only.
- · Never asserts that the diaspora governs, administers, or finances the North-East. Diaspora transfers sustain households; that is the limit of the finding.
- · Never creates a TLTE-authored aggregate, index, or total from government figures. Figures are reproduced, never merged or adjusted.
- · Never treats missing data as proof of concealment. An unpublished column is recorded as a measurement gap.
- · Never names serving officials, security personnel, or military units, and never publishes any security-footprint estimate of its own.
- · Never makes collective claims about Sinhalese civilians, the Buddhist clergy, or any community.
- · Always attaches source, date and confidence to every figure carried out of this pack.
TLTE is not a registered consultant lobbyist. This pack is a public-interest civic document. We do not coordinate statements with MPs and we receive no payment from any government.