Male' City Mayor Adam Azim said yesterday that the distribution of free rice and flour for Ramadan as decided by the government will begin during the first week of the fasting month as the city council has not received the staples yet.
The staples are to be distributed from stations set up in Male' with 10kg each of rice and flour to each household.
"We haven't got it yet. We'd be able to distribute during the first week of Ramadan," Azim said.
The staples will be distributed based on a household's electricity meter number and the person who comes to collect the bags must bring an ID card, Azim said.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced the government's decision to distribute 10kg bags of rice and flour to each household for Ramadan after returning from a state visit to China in January.
The government decided to provide 10kg of rice and 10kg of flour to all inhabited households this year. But the amounts would increase next year, the President said at the time.
The plan to distribute 10kg each of rice and flour drew criticism on social media. In some people's opinion, dates or cases of canned tuna would have been much better.
Staple foodstuff has long been subsidized by the government and sold at controlled prices in the Maldives. However, prices doubled when the subsidy had been eliminated during former President Abdulla Yameen's government.
As the government's price hike became a heavy burden for the public, former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government standardized staple food prices across all islands and lowered the price.
Based on the rates for rice and flour in the Maldives, 10kg of rice costs MVR 48 and 10kg of flour costs MVR 38. Therefore, the cost of supplying rice and flour to 81,744 households would be MVR 7 million. As the population of the Maldives is 515,132, the government would be providing MVR 13.6 worth of staples per head.
A household expenditure survey conducted by the government in 2019 showed that households spent MVR 28,251 per month with three to seven residents on average per household. Of the total monthly expenditure, the survey showed that MVR 6,591 on average was spent on food. Food costs are usually higher in Ramadan than in the rest of the year.
Under the common standard, 10 kilos of rice is enough rations for 60 people and 250 to 300 roshi (flat bread) could be baked with 10 kilos of flour. Therefore, the 10kg of rice and flour provided by the government would be sufficient for a month for a family of three or four people.
