One of the key targets or "fiscal anchor" set in the government's fiscal strategy, which is to cover recurrent expenditure with revenue, will not be achieved in the budget for 2023, according to the Finance Ministry.
According to the Weekly Fiscal Development Report released by the Finance Ministry which shows the fiscal situation till the last week of 2023, the government received MVR 31.8 billion in revenue and grants as of December 28. These include:
- Tax revenue - MVR 22.8 billion
- Non-tax revenue - MVR 8.1 billion
- Capital Receipts - MVR 305.4 million
- Grant - MVR 515.5 million
The government's fiscal strategy had a target to cover recurrent expenditures from non-grant revenues. The target will be achieved by reducing recurrent expenditure to below MVR 31.2 billion.
However, recurrent expenditure stood at MVR 31.7 billion. This is half a billion more than the revenue received.
The bulk of recurrent expenditure is accounted for costs to run the state. MVR 19.2 billion was reported as operational costs. This is higher than the MVR 18.7 billion allocated in the supplementary budget.
