Parliament's budget review committee has on Monday passed the proposed State Budget for 2018, with minor amendments.

Those who took part in Monday's committee meeting had unanimously voted to pass the MVR 27.9 billion budget; opposition lawmakers had boycotted the meeting over lack of time given to deliberate on the recommendations by the Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority and the Auditor General.

While minor changes were brought to the budget, there will be no changes to the total amount proposed.

The proposed budget was presented to parliament of November 15, by Finance Minister Ahmed Munavvar.

According to the Minister, the state estimates MVR 22.4 billion as revenue in 2018, as well as a budget deficit of MVR 2.5 billion- which is 3.2 percent of the GDP.

The proposed State Budget for 2018 is over a billion more that the record MVR 26.7 billion passed for this year. However, with the MVR 493 million supplementary budget passed this October, the total budget had reached MVR 27.3 billion.