Health infrastructure budget sees only MVR 232 million spent by August

This year’s budget has allocated a large amount for the development of health sector infrastructure, but only MVR 232.0 million has been spent on the budget for most of the year, according to the Finance Ministry.

According to the Weekly Fiscal Developments report released by the Finance Ministry as at 13 August 2026, MVR 814.7 million has been allocated for health infrastructure under Public Sector Investment (PSIP) projects.  

However, with four months left until the end of the year, only MVR 232.0 million has been utilized so far, meaning more than 70 percent of the entire health infrastructure budget remains unused.

Speaking at a press conference in Funadhoo on October 15 last year, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu said this year’s state budget would give unprecedented priority to the education and health sectors, and new projects would be carried out to develop the two sectors.

According to the Finance Ministry, the total expenditure of the government now stands at MVR 28.1 billion. This is an increase of MVR 4.5 billion, or 19.3 percent, compared to MVR 23.5 billion in the same period last year.

In addition, the government’s recurrent expenditure increased from MVR 20.3 billion to MVR 24.5 billion, a rise of 20.9 percent. Capital expenditure on development projects rose from MVR 3.3 billion to MVR 3.6 billion, an increase of 9.1 percent.

The report also shows that subsidies were the largest contributor to expenditure growth this week, while revenue growth was driven mainly by Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST). Overall, the government is running a deficit of MVR 950.3 million for the period.