Budget review to be completed on Thursday

Budget review committee of the parliament has said that they will be able to conclude reviewing the 2014 state budget on Thursday, 19 December.

Speaker of the Parliament Abdulla Shahid has asked the chair of the budget review committee MP Gasim Ibrahim on two separate occasions to conclude the budget’s review by today. However, the Finance Ministry’s revision of the budget to incorporate changes required by the new administration caused the budget committee to sit idly for 20 days. The revised budget was presented to parliament on Monday, 9 December.

Deputy chair of the budget review committee MP Abdulla Mausoom told Sun that the review can be completed on Thursday and that the review report can be presented to the parliament floor, soonest on Saturday, 21 December.

“The administrative staff will continue to send the relevant letters to the Parliament Speaker and others to inform the dates that we’ve decided for presenting the budget,” Mausoom said.

The committee held meetings with a number of institutions last week, where the institutions had aired grave concern over the limited budget.

The previous administration that ended its term on 11 November 2013 had presented a budget MVR 16.4 billion. The new administration has added MVR 1.1 billion, which includes MVR 400 million to fulfill manifesto pledges and MVR 500 million to carry out Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) projects. This has increased the total state budget for 2014 to MVR 17.5 billion.