The Ministry of Finance has disbursed a total of MVR 67.8 million as income support allowances for individuals and households by September 10.

According to the ministry’s latest statistics, MVR 79.8 million had been disbursed as income support allowances by September 10, overall.

The allowances were issued to 6,872 individuals out of the 16,082 applicants.

Introduced under the government’s economic relief package following the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the income support allowance is being issued since May 20 and a monthly income of MVR 5,000 is provided under specific conditions.

The goal of the economic relief package was to ensure job continuity for Maldivians, at a time large-scale terminations and wage cuts have taken place. Those who have been terminated, put on no-pay leave or suspended from their jobs are eligible for the allowance. This includes individuals in probation and temporary positions, these individuals will receive an allowance of MVR 5,000 for the six-month period.

A total of MVR 30,000 is awarded under the six-month allowance, between April to September. It aims to provide financial assistance to those who have had their lives and income affected by the pandemic and are unable to meet essential needs such as settling rent payments and others. Applicants must be aged between 18 and 65 years and employed in the Maldives by December 1, 2019.

According to the latest statistics, the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) remains the top contributor in providing discount on water bills, having provided 33,198 households discounts amounting MVR 9.8 million. The State Electric Company (STELCO) provided MVR 100,000 in discount for 495 households and FENAKA Corporation provided MVR 300,000 for a total of 12,699 households.

A total of MVR 10.2 million has been provided as discount for water bills for 46,392 households by September 10, unchanged from the previous statistics.

State Electric Company (STELCO) has provided 45,640 households up to MVR 27.3 million in discount in electricity bills. The total issued for discount by three companies, STELCO, FENAKA and MWSC amount to MVR 48.2 million for a total of 98,722 households which remains unchanged from the statistics of the previous week.

Statistics further reveal that the country’s national bank, Bank of Maldives (BML) has disbursed MVR 524.2 million to 369 businesses under the Recovery Loan Scheme by September 10.

The SME Development and Finance Corporation (SDFC) provided MVR 268.3 million for a total of 1,640 businesses as well.

As of September 10, the total disbursements made under the Economic Relief Package stood at MVR 996.8 million, this the ministry said is an increase of 1.2 percent in comparison to the previous week.

Over the past week, an additional disbursement of MVR 11.9 million was made to NSPA for the implementation of the income support allowance and no further allocations were made to any other schemes in that week, said the ministry.