President: Cannot provide electricity subsidy, other subsidies taking precedence

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has commented it wasn’t possible for government to provide subsidy on electricity as there were other subsidies which took precedence.

President Yameen made the comment during his speech at the function held in Dharubaaruge last Sunday night to officially hand out tickets to MDA candidates who will be competing in the upcoming local council elections.

He said in his speech that there were multiple reasons why the government was not able to provide electricity subsidy.

He said that there were other subsidies which took priority over electricity subsidy such as the “Aasandha” scheme for people without the means to pay for healthcare.

“MVR 800 million alone was spent just last year on Aasandha. It was spent on medicine covered in Aasandha. This means hundreds of millions was spent on hospitals to improve healthcare,” said President Yameen.

He said the government needed to have money to bear such expenditure.

He also said that a lot of people also hoped for a pay rise to teachers and healthcare employees.

“Now imagine if we were to run an electricity provider on subsidy. How can we subsidize an electricity provider and keep running developmental projects in Maldives,” said President Yameen.

President Yameen said that subsidy on healthcare and staple food to precedence over subsidy on electricity.

He said that the national debt stood at over MVR 34,000 million when he took office. He said the debt was from loans taken internally and externally, and needed to be paid.

“Nothing was handed over to us on a golden plate. We stared from minus,” said President Yameen.

Electricity subsidy is currently provided to only those who’s application forms are approved.