Kanditheemu MP Ameen Faisal has called the government’s proposed budget for next year a “big scam” written to deceive citizens and plunder the country, as he says previous budgets were.
Speaking during the budget debate in Parliament, Ameen criticised how the government drafts its budgets and how it has spent public money over the past three years.
He said budgets presented under the government’s “Dhivehinge Raajje” slogan have brought no benefit to the public, and called next year’s budget a deception in line with government rhetoric.
“This is a huge scam, a deception. I view this as a sermon written to plunder this nation under the banner of Dhivehinge Raajje,” Ameen said.
Ameen said the government listed Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) projects in the 2025 budget as lump sums rather than one by one, saying this would help it carry them out properly.
But by the end of that year, he said, no project had started, stopped or finished in his constituency.
He said the government then left island and constituency breakdowns out of the 2026 budget, saying President Dr Mohamed Muizzu wanted to visit the islands and consult residents directly.
According to Ameen, the President made many pledges on those visits, but none has been delivered.
Ameen said the state spent MVR 52.8bn and MVR 56.5bn in earlier years, and that total spending will reach MVR 173.5bn by the end of this year. He said nothing has been achieved for the public despite such large spending.
