Figures from the Finance Ministry have shown that the state earned MVR 9.3 billion and spent MVR 7.2 billion in the first ten weeks of this year.
According to the latest Weekly Fiscal Development Report, the overall budget surplus stood at MVR 2.1 billion. The primary balance excluding financing and interest expenses stood at MVR 2.6 billion.
The government's revenue so far includes MVR 7.7 billion from taxes and MVR 1.5 billion from non-tax revenue.
The government has spent the largest amount of money on administrative and operating expenses. However, these expenditures declined from MVR 4.7 billion to MVR 3.8 billion year-on-year.
This is because financing and interest costs have come down sharply. In the first 10 weeks of last year, MVR 1.4 billion was spent on this, compared to MVR 577 million this year.
Although operating expenses were lowered, payroll expenses were higher than the previous year. So far this year, the government has spent MVR 2.7 billion on salaries. The Finance Ministry said the increase was due to the implementation of the pay harmonization policy.
Despite ending the first ten weeks with a huge surplus, the state has faced a number of financial challenges due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
