The Minister of Finance has requested a deduction of MVR 19.3 million from the parliament's budget, says Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.

During Monday's session, the Speaker announced that the parliament has received a letter from the Minister of Finance requesting to deduct the parliament's budget.

Claiming that he believes an MVR19.3 million deduction is possible, Speaker Nasheed stated that he has requested Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla to assess the parliament’s budget to cut costs accordingly.

Further, noting that the finance minister has stated that MVR19.3 million can be deducted from the parliament’s annual budget, Nasheed stated that future costs can be minimized and handover of funds to the ministry can be arranged.

This year’s annual budget for the parliament’s secretariat is set at MVR 129،550،285.

The state has initiated many cost-cutting measures in efforts against the spread of Covid-19. This includes setting a target of reducing MVR 1 billion from state expenses.

As such, the finance minister has also allocated a contingency budget of MVR 212 million following the declaration of the State of Health emergency.

With the discovery of Covid-19 cases in the country, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that an economic downturn is expected. He stated that a 6.9 billion reduction will be seen from state revenue whereas GDP will fall in between 0.5 to minus 5.6%.

Additionally, while speaking at the SAARC leaders’ video conference on Sunday, the president stated that the negative impact on tourism will decrease foreign revenue by USD 450 million. The total forecast for losses in state revenue due to the economic downturn is between USD 135.9 million and USD 446.9 million.