Budget committee passes supplementary budget

The budget committee of the People’s Majlis has passed the supplementary budget submitted for the remainder of 2023.

The committee passed the MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget submitted by the Ministry of Finance, during a committee meeting held on Thursday.

The supplementary budget was presented to parliament by the ministry after it was predicted that more than what has been approved for this year, would be spent by the state.

With this addition, the state budget for this year will increase to MVR 49.3 billion.

The People’s Majlis passed a state budget of MVR 42.84 billion for 2023. However, the finance ministry has projected that MVR 6.509 billion more will be required for the remainder of the year.

MP for Maradhoo constituency, Ibrahim Shareef submitted a proposal to the committee to approve the supplementary budget with further amendments as proposed by the finance ministry.

MP for Eydhafushi constituency Ahmed Saleem backed the proposed amendments by MP Shareef.

According to the ministry, the supplementary budget has primarily earmarked funds for expenditure on PSIP, Aasandha and subsidies as well as capital contribution to state-owned companies.

As such, MVR 1.85 billion has been earmarked as additional budget for subsidies, MVR 1.26 billion for Aasandha and MVR 1.78 billion for PSIP initiatives.

The ministry added that this year, PSIP projects were fast-paced and there were expenses more than what was budgeted and many of the expenditure reduction measures planned when the budget was passed were not implemented as planned.

Therefore, the estimated savings from this had declined.