Budget deficit at three billion

Due to higher expenditures than income, the state deficit has increased to MVR 3.1 billion at the end of the year.

Finance Ministry’s weekly statistics shows that up until last Thursday, MVR 9.57 billion was earned as revenue and that MVR 12.7 billion was spent as expenditure. MVR 1.8 billion had also been spent for lending and repayments of loans.

Recurrent expenses stood at MVR 9.4 billion while capital expenses were MVR 1.4 billion. MVR 4.9 billion was spent as employee wages and allowances, and MVR 4.5 billion was spent as office operating expenses.

Reflecting on the expenses of government offices, the most money was spent by the Education Ministry with an expense of MVR 2.1 billion. They had also spent MVR 3.9 billion from the Finance Ministry Special Budget.

The Parliament had spent MVR 165.3 million while the President’s Office had spent MVR 110.4 million. Health Ministry had meanwhile spent MVR 1.4 billion.

As the largest source of revenue, the state has earned MVR 6.7 billion from taxes. The largest amount was received from Business Profit Tax which totaled MVR 2.5 billion.

Finance Ministry predicts that the MVR 14 billion budget will rise up to MVR 18 billion next year. That would amount to a deficit of MVR 3.4 billion. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concern over the increasing state budget deficit which is predicted to rise to 27 percent.