STO halts payment for employee housing due to budget shortage

The State Trading Organization (STO) has suspended paying for 300 housing units built to house employees due to budget shortages, Managing Director Hussain Amru has said.

Amru told RaajjeMV on Wednesday that paying for the housing units is not feasible and that the money employees paid will be returned to them by the end of the month, along with their salary.

The newly appointed managing director said that the company has to pay 20 percent of the total cost of building said housing units, which is USD 4.5 million. The remaining 80 percent can only be paid by acquiring loan, Amru said.

Even if this amount is to be divided among employees who received the housing units, the amount is far too high. Amru said that employees at the company make an average of MVR 10,000 and that this would mean more than half their salaries are deducted to pay for the units.

STO announced a housing scheme for their employees under the state-run ‘Hiyaa’ program in July this year. A total of 308 flats are to be given to their employees.

Recipients of the flats have already signed agreements with STO, which requires them to pay for their new homes over the course of December, 2018 to November, 2020.