Ministry of Finance re-submits supplementary budget
The Ministry Finance requested for a supplementary budget at the Parliament for an additional MVR 6.5 billion to cater to the several public projects that needs to continue rest of the year.
Towards the end of Sepetmber 2023, details surrounding the expenditure of the Government of the Maldives as well as the increasing need for a supplementary budget was raised. With the Government having spent 77 percent of the allocated budget for the year, the Finance Ministry revealed that the Government only had MVR 9.7 billion to spend for the rest of the year.
While the budget passed for 2023 stood at MVR 42 billion, with the increasing projects as well as over spending on the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) projects, as well as overspending on the Subsidies that the Government provides, the administration found itself with the need to request a supplementary budget as they had spent MVR 33.1 billion by the end of September.
With this, the Finance Ministry requested for a supplementary budget at the Parliament of the Maldives for an additional MVR 6.5 billion to cater to the several public project that needs to continue for the rest of the year.
By the last week of October the Ministry of Finance had submitted the supplementary budget, however the Parliament did not agenda this issue due to the Finance Ministry’s failure to include the details stipulated in the law.
Following this, the Ministry has sent in the Budget for a second time, and according to the Parliament Communications Director Hassan Ziyau, even the second request sent by the Finance Ministry to the Parliament did not include all the details, and with this the Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has signed a letter to the Finance Ministry to resubmit the budget with all the details requited by the law.
The request sent by the Ministry included the request for additional funds of MVR 1.8 billion for the subsidies, MVR 1.2 billion for the national health insurance scheme Aasandha, as well as MVR 1.7 billion for the PSIPs.
By October 26th 2023, the Finance Ministry had yet again sent in the supplementary budget to the Parliament. According to the Communications Director of the Parliament, they are now looking into whether all the documentation has been completed this time around.
The Minister of Finance in the Solih administration, Ibrahim Ameer is noted as a Minister spending beyond what is approved by the Parliament, with annual deficits exceeding MVR 10 billion.
