Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer has stressed that the state will face losses up to MVR 36 billion in revenues between 2020 – 2022 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

He said this while speaking at a training programme to familiarize councilors with the public finance regulation, stating the state revenues are taking a major plunge at a time Maldives is immersed in the coronavirus pandemic.

As such, he noted that the medium-term fiscal strategy for 2020 predicts a loss of MVR 36 billion in revenues through 2022, which is roughly USD 2.3 billion in losses.

Minister Ameer noted that expenditure is required to be reduced significantly in order to overcome the challenges in the face of these losses and expenditure must be based around increased benefits.

Reducing the debt output due to the pandemic at the earliest will be the ministry’s biggest resolve in the long run. Ameer revealed that this will only be possible if national productivity is boosted, fiscal consolidation increased as part of the state budget for 2022.

Highlighting that the entire globe is submerged in an economic crisis during these days, Ameer said that the councils should aim to manage expenses within their revenues and block grants. When spending, the councils have been urged to prioritize things that will benefit the island communities and keep in mind that everything they need may not be fulfilled during such challenging times.

The government has been working to reduce expenses due to the challenges facing state revenues due to Covid-19, with ministry statistics showing that MVR 28.9 billion out of the MVR 37.9 billion allocated as the state budget for 2020, were spent for additional expenses.