Debate on state budget to proceed till 10:00pm tonight

The Parliament, on Tuesday, has decided to continue the debate on the state budget proposed for next year till 10:00pm tonight.

On agenda for Tuesday’s sitting is the debate on the MVR 49.5 billion budget proposed for the upcoming year by the government.

Opening the sitting, Speaker Mohamed Aslam noted that Finance Minister Dr. Mohamed Shafeeg would be unable to attend today’s sitting, adding the minister, however, will be attending tomorrow’s sitting.

Therewith, the parliament has decided to hold the debate in both today's and tomorrow’s sittings.

34 MPs voted in favor of extending Tuesday’s sitting till 10:00pm tonight in order to complete the debate at the earliest.

Finance Ministry submitted an MVR 49.5 billion budget for 2024 on October 30^th. A total of MVR 33.5 billion is expected in state revenue next year of which MVR 25.6 billion is expected from taxes while the remaining MVR 6.6 billion is expected from other sources.

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

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.