The Supplementary Budget, which was proposed by the Finance Ministry to add MVR 5 billion to the State Budget 2024, has been approved from the Parliament without any changes.
The Budget Review Committee summoned Finance Minister Moosa Zameer and Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Ahmed Munawar. However, the committee had voted against disclosing the details of the expenditure from this year's budget.
With the government's full majority in parliament and committee, the MVR 5 billion budget for the rest of this year was not changed at the committee stage. Out of 86 MPs in attendance, 75 MPs voted in favor of the budget. Eleven MPs of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) voted against the budget.
The highlights of the supplementary budget
- PSIP - MVR 2 billion
- Subsidies - MVR 1.02 billion
- Funds to state-owned enterprises - MVR 441.4 million
- Contingency Budget - MVR 650 million
- Student Loans - MVR 458.4 million
- Medical consumables - MVR 200 million
- Medical assistance - MVR 262.6 million
- Salaries and Wages - MVR 24.4 million
Explaining the reason for the supplementary budget, the Finance Ministry said no strategies were formulated although the budget had a slew of reforms to cut costs from July this year.
Pointing out that the technical work in formulating the strategies was done by the present government, the Finance Ministry accused the previous government of not fulfilling its responsibility.
The Finance Ministry also said that the government was unable to implement projects that have been stalled because small amounts had been budgeted for PSIP projects. This was done after the projects were contracted at huge figures last year and advance payments were issued, it said.
There is also a need to supplement the budget to pay for last year's bills and to pay for the new mega projects as the pace of those projects has been faster than anticipated, the ministry added.
