Government offices to reduce budgets by 15 percent before end of the month

Ministry of Finance has notified all government offices to revise and reduce their budgets by 15 percent before the end of the month.

A circular sent by Minister of Finance Abdullah Jihad last Sunday requests all government offices and councils to reduce their budgets by 15 percent and submit the new budget to the Ministry of Finance before 15 June.

All state institutions of which the budgets are decided by the Parliament, as well as all other institutions, are notified to do the same before 20 June.

“The budgets of those institutions which fail to meet the deadline to submit the revised budgets, will be reduced by 15 percent by this Ministry,” reads the circular.

The cabinet made the decision on 22 May to reduce the budgets of every government institution by 15 percent.

Ministry of Finance has estimated that the budget of Rf14b proposed for this year will become Rf18b. This is a deficit of about Rf3.4b. IMF has expressed concern over the rising state expenditure in the Maldives. It is estimated that the deficit will increase to 27 percent.