After the First Five-Year Plan was introduced in 1955-56, the budget was divided into two parts--regular and development (see table 11, Appendix). In a speech delivered on July 13, 1990, the minister of finance presented a budget with four major objectives: to direct the development programs by eliminating the existing anomalies and by making them more realistic and productive, as well as overseeing their consistency in directly benefiting the deprived community to rationalize the role of the private sector and the facilities provided by the government to minimize the increasing hardship faced by the common people and to start a process of repaying the accumulated financial liabilities of the government. Because the planned expenditures for development were rarely met, the 1990 budget lowered development expenditures to make the plan more realistic.

The 1990 budget allowed for total expenditures of Rs19.8 billion. Revenue was estimated to be just over Rs10.1 billion. The deficit was to be met through foreign grants (Rs2.5 billion), foreign loans (Rs5.5 billion), and domestic borrowing. The budget was not unique in terms of the size of the deficit or its dependence on foreign grants and loans, as this pattern had existed for more than three decades.

Data as of September 1991