He said so, while participating in the debate on six finance resolutions moved by the government.

The rupee depreciated sharply as foreign reserves were depleted during the last ten years.

We are trying to appreciate the rupee, but we cannot undo the massive damage caused to the economy overnight.

The previous government did not take any steps to develop the export sector, specially the small and medium scale entrepreneurs suffered heavily. Although the previous government boasted of having US$ 7 billion foreign reserves, most of it was in the form of foreign debts.

UPFA MP Sarath Amunugama said that the main problem of the country now was reduction of the revenue flowing in to the country.

Although this government has initially planned to contain the budget deficit to four percent of the GDP, it might be around 6 percent at the end of this year. The recurrent expenditure too had gone up by 40 percent as this government implemented certain measures to fulfill the pledges given by it at the previous election period.