Financial statistics have shown that the amount spent from the state budget on salaries and allowances this year has increased by MVR 400 million.

After a two-day hiatus, the Finance Ministry on Sunday released the financial statistics of expenditure and revenue until March 20.

MVR 2.62 billion was spent from the state budget on salaries and allowances, up from MVR 2.22 billion last year. This is a total increase of MVR 404 million. Expenditure on salaries alone increased by MVR 147 million.

In addition, operating and administrative expenses have also increased. As of March 20, MVR 4.56 billion was spent from the state budget on operating and administrative expenses. This amount stood at MVR 4.38 billion during the same period last year.

Increased revenue

Total revenue increased by MVR 840 million during the period. However, import duties, business and property taxes declined.

Import duties have decreased since the beginning of this year. As of March 20, the government collected MVR 637.7 million in import duties. Import duty collection stood at MVR 712.6 million during the same period last year.

The main reasons for the increase in revenue were the legal amendments to increase tourism taxes, airport fees and taxes. Green tax, TGST, airport development fee and departure tax were also increased.

Taxes received from tourism taxes and airport fees

• Green tax: MVR 233 million in 2024 and MVR 401.2 million in 2025
• Departure tax: MVR 228.2 million in 2024 and MVR 340.5 million in 2025
• Airport Development Fee: MVR 233.2 million in 2024 and MVR 340.1 million in 2025
• TGST: MVR 2.3 billion in 2024 and MVR 2.7 billion in 2025

Construction Minister Dr. Abdulla Muththalib recently said that the government has no choice but to borrow money to implement development projects because of high recurrent expenses.

The biggest reason for high recurrent expenditure is the large number of political appointees.

The government has refused to disclose the total number of political appointees, but the opposition believes the figure is more than 3,000.