Finance minister, Majlis speaker disagree on need to propose a supplementary budget

Due to the global economic impact of Covid-19, the time has come to propose a supplementary budget, says Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed.

Speaking at a press conference held on Thursday afternoon at the Parliament's Secretariat, Nasheed stated that the time has come to propose a supplementary budget.

However, during a press briefing on Wednesday at the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC), Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer has stated that there is currently no need to propose a supplementary budget.

Nevertheless, Nasheed - while highlighting the negative impact on state revenue due to the pandemic - has stated that there are certain steps that must be taken, such as identifying which resorts require rent suspension. He went onto note that revenue from BPT and GST up until March has been profitable, adding that the revenue from the past three months can be utilised.

Additionally, Nasheed announced that he has held discussions regarding a supplementary budget with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

While the finance minister stated that there is no need to propose a supplementary budget at Wednesday's press conference, he also revealed that the state budget passed for 2020 will see an MVR 12 billion deficit due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He has also stated that the Maldives will receive MVR 30 million under the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Drawing Right (SDR) for member states.

While the minister revealed that discussions are ongoing with the IMF, he added that the Maldives has no intention of agreeing to an IMF lending program. Loans under IMF programs are released after the organisation and the respective country agrees on a program of economic policies.

Conditions of IMF programs include reducing the number of civil servants, decreasing recurrent expenditure (wages, salaries etc) and privatizing state companies.