Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has said that the state will not be able to pay its employees this month unless it receives USD 200 million in budget support.

He said this in an interview with Mihaaru regarding President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s trip to India.

Minister Shahid said that they will be unable to move forward unless they receive a budget support of USD 200 million and that the government will discuss receiving the amount from India as free aid.

In the interview, Minister Shahid also criticized the ‘poor financial state’ of former President Abdulla Yameen’s administration.

He also said that India will provide loans to the new Maldives government with favorable interest rates, while Yameen’s government had taken loans at commercial rates.

Parliament's Public Finance Committee has recently requested an investigative report from the Finance Ministry, into the loans taken during Yameen’s tenure, as it is yet to forward the required report.