Gov’t expenditure soars to MVR 41.59bn, operational costs surge, development expenses decline!

The current administration had exhausted MVR 41.59 billion from the 2024 state budget, by 7 November 2024.

According to the latest weekly financial report released by the Ministry of Finance, this is higher than the MVR 41.2 billion spent during the same period last year.

Excluding loan repayments, the finance report notes that the government expenditure has reached MVR 39.5 billion.

Of this amount, the largest chunk was spent on recurrent expenditure amounting to 71 percent of the total expenditure or MVR 28.1 billion.

From the recurrent expenditure, MVR 11.2 billion was spent on salaries, allowances, and pensions, while MVR 16.8 billion was spent on administrative and operational costs.

Compared to the same period last year, the finance statistics show that the administration has increased spending on salaries and allowances. At that time, MVR 9.9 billion was spent on salaries and allowances, and MVR 16.2 billion on administrative expenses.

The figures show that a total of MVR eight billion has been spent on development projects under the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP), which is MVR 2.2 billion less than the MVR 10.2 billion spent during the same period last year.

In terms of revenue, the state has received MVR 29.3 billion so far in 2024. Of this, MVR 22.4 billion was received as tax and MVR 6.3 billion from non-tax sources. Additionally, the Maldives received MVR 565 million in grants.

The revenue recorded in the same period last year including grants, was MVR 28.9 billion.

The total budget approved for 2024, including the MVR 5.5 billion passed in September, is MVR 55 billion.