Finance Minister Moosa Zameer today said that the approved budget for this year will not be enough and a supplementary budget will be submitted to the Parliament.
In his first press conference as Finance Minister, Zameer said that work was underway to submit the supplementary budget to the Parliament. He said the supplementary budget is expected to be in the range of MVR 5 billion, but said it is difficult to give an exact number at the moment.
"We will decide the exact amount to be supplemented after consulting the Cabinet and the President. We will finalize it once we get the Auditor General's report. But we will submit a supplementary budget," Zameer said.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry told the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament that this year's budget would be close to MVR 58 billion if no changes were brought to expenditures. Replying to a question from a journalist, Zameer said that it would not reach that amount and it is believed that the supplement would be around MVR 5 billion.
The Finance Ministry told the Public Accounts Committee that the ministry expects to spend more than budgeted on PSIP, indirect subsidies and debt repayment. But all of these are areas where spending could be cut under planned fiscal reforms, the finance ministry said at the time.
The budget for this year is a record MVR 49.9 billion. If the budget is supplemented with MVR 5 billion, the total budget will be close to MVR 55 billion. Although expenditures have increased, the finance ministry did not say whether reforms would increase revenue this year.
Hiking taxes and fees are proposed to increase revenue next year.
