Some MVR 200 million needed for President-Elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's first 100 days in office has been included in a supplementary budget submitted to increase this year's budget.
The Finance Ministry submitted a supplementary budget to parliament on Wednesday to add MVR 6.5 billion to this year's budget, bringing the total 2023 budget to MVR 49.2 billion.
The government facilitated the President-Elect's proposed changes to the supplementary budget, Director General of Transition Abdul Raheem Abdulla said yesterday.
A special committee selected for the purpose has been making changes to the budget on behalf of the incoming Progressive Party of Maldives-People's National Congress (PPM-PNC) government. The committee proposed the inclusion of MVR 200 million needed for achieving the goals of the President-Elect's first 100 days.
"The supplementary budget has been submitted with MVR 200 million added as requested by the transition committee," a senior Finance Ministry official told Adhadhu today.
But details of how the MVR 200 million is to be spent have not been revealed. The information has not been forthcoming so far.
The President-Elect's office is also in the process of proposing changes needed to arrange funding for Muizzu's manifesto pledges.
Why has a supplementary budget been proposed?
The government was forced to spend an additional MVR 6 billion after spending above budgeted amounts for fuel subsidies, exhausting the Aasandha budget and increasing expenditure on student loans and the tuition-free degree scheme, Adhadhu has learned.
The latest 'Weekly Fiscal Development' report published by the Finance Ministry shows that MVR 487.6 million has been spent in excess of the budget allocated for Aasandha and an additional MVR 732.4 million has been spent on subsidies.
Investment outlays and domestic lending or loans to government companies have also exceeded the budgeted amounts respectively by MVR 379 million and MVR 478 million.
According to the report released on September 28, MVR 35.8 billion had been spent out of the budget by then, which was 83.6 percent of the approved total. The Finance Ministry has not published details of government spending since then.
