President Abdulla Yameen has addressed allegations that his administration has exponentially increased state debt, by saying that the country was most indebted when former President Mohamed Nasheed was in office.
Yameen spoke at a ruling party event to welcome newly signed members, saying that comparatively, his administration has been more productive than any that came before.
The incumbent president claimed that while the state debt grew under the Nasheed administration, it had initiated far less development projects, comparatively.
President Yameen went on to say that the state debt had been at MVR 29 billion when he took office in 2013, and that anymore the state has accumulated since then was as a means to ‘rectify poor financial decisions’ made by his predecessors.
The state debt as of September this year is recorded at MVR 43 billion, a difference of 14 billion.
“Since my assumption of office, my administration has worked towards improving our country’s financial situation. We had cleared a total of 13 billion to our creditors, while having accumulated only 14 billion. Therefore, the amount that my administration accumulated in debt is just one billion” President Yameen said.
While the president’s comments on Sunday remain this way, Finance Minister Ahmed Munavvar said last month in parliament that the state had payed a record of MVR 4 billion to creditors during the current administration four years in office.
On November 22nd, the parliament approved the proposed state budget for 2018, one that is in total MVR 29.9 billion. While the estimated budget deficit is to be 2.5 billion, the Finance Ministry’s records show that a total of 15 billion had been taken as loans by the current administration.
The budget estimates an income of 22.4 billion for next year, which comprises of 16.3 billion from taxes, 5.2 billion from as non-tax profits, and 858 million estimated to come from aid and loans.
The state budget set for 2017 had been 26.7 billion, an unprecedented amount at the time. However, the government had asked the parliament to pass a supplementary budget during the third quarter of this year, which ruling party aligned MPs did so amid protests from the opposition.
