Speaker expresses concern over committee report on State Budget 2020

Speaker of Parliament, former President Mohamed Nasheed, has expressed concern over the budget committee's report on the state budget for 2020, over failure to include any avenues to increase state revenue despite increasing the total proposed amount.

Speaking during Tuesday's session, before the report was introduced to the parliament floor, Nasheed noted that the committee has added to state expenditure the 2020 stage budget by allocating an extra MVR 273 million under Public Sector Investment Programs (PSIP).

He further noted that the committee has allocated an additional MVR 93 million for government offices, bringing the total state budget from the initial MVR 37.5 billion up to MVR 37.7 million.

He stated that this raises the budget deficit from 5.8% to 6.2% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).

Furthermore, he stressed that it is unacceptable for the total budget amount to increase, especially when it was proposed by the main ruling party, as this will result in a significant rise in the budget deficit.

He went on to highlight that despite increasing the total amount for the 2020 state budget, the report has not found any avenues to increase state revenue in order to counter the rise in expenditure.

Nasheed also declared that the 2020 budget will be finalized within the next two days.

As such, Nasheed claimed that parliaments secretariat has prepared the budget details in such a way that the funds and projects allocated for every island councils are specified.

He stated that this is the best way to enforce a program budget and identify better avenues for spending by island councils.

While the Majlis continues work on the state budget, it will go into recess on December 7.