President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has made the decision to give the 35 percent allowance to those employed at the Local Councils.

Spokesperson at the President's Office, Miuvan Mohamed stated that President Solih has made the decision to provide the 35 percent allowance to employees of the local councils from 1 October 2023 onwards.

Miuvan noted that, with the administration's decision to provide civil servants, excluding those employed in local councils, with the 35 percent allowance from 1 May 2023 onwards, concerns were raised by local council staff. He stated that this decision widened the salary gap between civil servants working in government ministries and in local councils.

Miuvan stated that the President made the decision to provide civil servants working in local councils to lessen this gap.

Miuvan went onto say that President Solih believes that the lack of this allowance is a major obstacle to the efforts of the employees of local councils to provide services closer to the people in the decentralization process and that it is best to provide this allowance to employees of local councils as it is provided to other civil servants.