Budget debate to continue until 11 pm

People’s Majlis has voted on continuing with the first day of debate on the projected State budget for 2017 until 11 pm, this Monday.

30 of 41 lawmakers present during this Monday morning’s Majlis sitting voted to continue with the debate into the night.

The debate will be held over a period of two days; meaning that the debate will continue during the next Majlis sitting which is held as well.

Each lawmaker will be allowed 15 minutes of debate time during the first stage, and seven minutes of debate during the last stage.

The government has submitted a projected State budget of MVR 26 billion, which is MVR 1 billion less than the projected budget of 2016.

The government has proposed a cut in recurrent expenditure and an increase in income generators – including additional taxes and increase in import duty on certain items such as tobacco.