Revenue at MVR 9b, while expenditures reach nearly MVR 12b

At the end of the first 11 months of this year, the government’s expenditures have reached MVR11.8 billion, or almost MVR12 billion.

The Government Revenue and Expenditure Summary publicised by the Ministry of Finance every week shows that the total revenue at the end of the first 11 months of 2012 was MVR9.1 billion. Due to expenditures worth MVR11.8 billion, the budget deficit has already reached MVR2.7 billion.

With not much time left until the end of the year, it has been estimated that the budget deficit will rise to MVR3 billion.

Meanwhile, the budget that was passed by the Parliament for this year was for MVR14 billion, with a deficit of MVR3.8 billion.

The government spent MVR8.7 billion on recurrent expenses and MVR1.4 billion on capital expenses. It also spent MVR1.7 billion on loan repayment and loan provision.

The largest chunk of government expenditures go to employee salaries. A total of MVR4.5 billion was spent on salaries and allowances. Also, MVR4.2 billion was spent as office operation expenses.

At MVR1.9 billion, most money was spent on Ministry of Education. The second largest amount was spent on Ministry of Health, at MVR1.3 billion. MVR3.8 billion was spent from the special budget of Ministry of Finance, and while MVR103.4 million was spent on the President’s Office, MVR153.6 million was spent on the Parliament.

While MVR1.7 billion was spent on loan repayment, MVR2.6 million was spent on repaying short-term domestic loans, MVR879.4 million was spent on repaying long-term domestic loans, and MVR804.3 million was spent on repaying foreign loans.

Finance Ministry estimates total debt to be at MVR20 billion by the end of the year. Total debt by the end of last year was at MVR23 billion, which was about 115 percent of real GDP. Total debt in 2008 was around MVR9.8 billion.

The Parliament is currently reviewing the budget of MVR16.9 billion proposed by the government for 2013. Concerns have been raised that the budget is too large, and MPs have said that it needs to be reduced to MVR14 billion.