Majlis overlooks public concerns, greenlights MVR 5.1bn supplementary budget

The People's Majlis has passed the proposed supplementary budget for this year without considering public concerns.

A vote was taken at Tuesday’s parliament sitting to pass the MVR 5.1 billion supplementary budget.

75 lawmakers voted in favor of passing the budget and 11 lawmakers voted against.

The MVR 5.1 billion supplementary budget was passed by the Budget Committee on Monday.

The public and opposition parties have raised concerns after government parliamentarians on the Budget Committee voted to keep details of how the 2024 budget has been spent so far confidential.

Financial experts and former parliamentarians have also been asserting that a supplementary budget cannot be submitted without disclosing how the budget was spent.

However, the current Majlis assembly, which holds a supermajority for the government, has remained unresponsive to these concerns.

Although the budget was sent back to the floor after the committee passed it, no amendments were proposed on the floor to the committee's decision.

The supplementary budget adds up to MVR 5,119,508,129.

During the parliament sitting held on October 24, Minister of Finance Moosa Zameer presented the budget to include MVR 1.5 billion as recurrent expenditure; MVR 24.4 million earmarked for salaries, MVR 200 million for medical supplies, MVR 262.6 million for medical aid, and MVR one billion for subsidies.

The budget includes MVR 3.6 billion as capital expenditure; MVR two billion for land reclamation, construction, and infrastructure, MVR 441 million for capital contribution, MVR 650 million for contingency, and MVR 458.4 million for student loans.

The deficit of the supplementary budget is MVR four billion.

This means that this year's total budget deficit is MVR 18 billion.

With this, the total budget for this year will reach MVR 55 billion. A budget of MVR 49.8 billion was passed for 2024.