Government offices to reduce expenses by ten percent

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has announced that the decision has been made to reduce the budgets of government offices by ten percent, as a measure to reduce government expenditure.

The President made this remark at the press conference held this afternoon, to mark the first 100 days since his assumption of office as the President of Maldives.

He said that when he became President on 7 February, the government had a huge budget deficit, and the first thing to be done was to reduce government expenses.

Noting that the number of political posts of the current government is less than that of the former government, the President said that reductions in salaries of political personnel is currently being considered, and that government offices have been notified to reduce their expenses.

Along with reducing expenses, the government is also looking for ways to increase income. President Waheed said that the government is considering obtaining foreign aid – the Indian government had agreed to provide $25m as budget support and further $25m as investment.

“I do not intend to make abrupt changes to the economic policies. We won’t introduce heavy taxes or do things like that. That would result in investors losing their confidence in us. We plan to maintain that confidence and take necessary economic action,” the President said.

Referring to the economic progress over the past 100 days, the President said that ‘the economy is starting to show small but good signs’. He noted that the price of Rufiya was improving, and said that the government had stopped printing new currency. He also marked the increase in the building capacity in resorts from 20 to 30 percent, which would benefit the tourism sector.

“I know that we don’t have time to start new projects. The budget is tight, but we are still trying to commence some projects,” he said.

He said that Aasandha system should be changed by the Parliament in order to make it sustainable. He urged the Parliament to speed up this process.

The President said that improvements are observed in every part of the society after 100 days of the new government.