Parliament approves MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget

Parliament, on Monday, has approved the MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget submitted by the Finance Ministry for the remainder of this year.

With the MVR 6.5 billion supplement, the state budget for this year will increase from MVR 42.8 billion to MVR 49.3 billion.

Parliament’s Budget Committee approved the proposed supplementary budget alongside an amendment allocating MVR 6.5 million for media outlets last Thursday.

At Monday’s sitting, 57 MPs voted in favor of approving the supplementary budget alongside the committee’s amendment, while 10 MPs voted against granting approval.

They were MPs belonging to The Democrats.

The supplementary budget submitted to the Parliament includes MVR 3.1 billion for recurrent expenditure and MVR 3.3 billion for capital expenditure.

The allotment for recurrent expenditure includes MVR 1.8 billion for subsidies, MVR 1.2 billion for Aasandha – which will increase the budget allocated for Aasandha this year to MVR 2.3 billion.

The supplementary budget will increase total recurrent expenditure to MVR 31.7 billion.

Meanwhile, funds for capital expenditure are being supplemented mainly due to the increase in spending on PSIP projects – an additional MVR 1.7 billion has been allotted for PSIP projects.