The General Committee of the People’s Majlis has approved a budget of MVR 196.2 million for the parliament secretaries, for the upcoming year.

This was approved by the committee during a meeting held on Tuesday.

Initially, a budget of MVR 186.7 million was submitted to the committee for the upcoming year.

It was later proposed to increase some allowances for parliament staff from 2024.

The decision was reached on the basis of the committee's recommendation that there was no increment in the salaries of the administrative staff of parliament in the last 11 years.

Following discussions regarding this, it was proposed that the rules for allowances for employees of the parliament be amended to increase the allowances of employees.

A total of MVR 5.9 million has been earmarked for this purpose.

Further, a total of MVR 4.2 million has been allocated in the budget for new policy initiatives.

As per the proposal to increase the salary of the employees of the People’s Majlis, it has been proposed that the existing allowance of MVR 200 per day of attendance is to be changed to an attendance allowance, with which the allowance will be named “parliamentary service”. It was also proposed to pay 20 percent of basic salary as parliamentary service allowance.

It was also proposed to pay MVR 1,000 if the employee has a diploma certificate, MVR 700 if the employee has a technical certificate, MVR 1,500 if the employee has a degree certificate and MVR 2,000 if the employee has a master's certificate. These figures are higher than the existing allowances.

The parliament has a total of 164 administrative employees.

According to the People’s Majlis, the new parliament which begins in 2024 will have 93 seats. These include two constituencies added to Malé City. From 2024, capital city will have a total of 17 seats.

One seat each has been added to Baa atoll, Kaafu atoll, Gaaf Alif Atoll and Seenu Atoll as well.

The six seats added for 2024 are Central Hulhumalé constituency, North Hulhumalé constituency, Hithaadhoo constituency (Baa atoll) Hithaadhoo, Maalhos and Dharavandhoo, Huraa constituency (Kaafu atoll) Huraa, Himmafushi and Gulhi, Kolamaafushi constituency (Gaaf Alif atoll) Kolamaafushi and Dhevvadhoo and North Feydhoo constituency (Seenu atoll) Feydhoo and Maradhoo-Feydhoo.

The Elections Commission of Maldives has announced that Eydhafushi, Villingili and Meedhoo constituencies will have only the one island belonging to the constituency, with these changes.

The report also notes that the names of some constituencies have been changed.

As such, Hulhumalé constituency will be known as South Hulhumalé constituency, Guraidhoo constituency will be known as Maafushi constituency, Thaa. Guraidhoo constituency will be known as Guraidhoo constituency and Feydhoo constituency will be known as South Feydhoo constituency.