MP for Madaveli Constituency Hussain Firushan has expressed concern over the budget cut for the National Social Protection Agency which manages the funds for people with special needs.
This comes after the government cut down the budget to the agency by 16 percent in its proposed budget for 2023 while also proposing to increase the taxes through its bill on amendment of the tax act.
MP Firushan said that NSPA is an agency that is providing valuable services to people with disabilities and it is worrisome that the government has cut its budget for the agency.
He then questioned what percentage of the increase in taxes would be included in the budget for NSPA.
The MP said that the government had said that it proposed to increase the taxes to mitigate losses due to recurrent expenditures and it is upsetting to categorize the services to people with special needs as such.
He said that it would be more beneficial to give the right information with good intent and that he would not support hiking the taxes.
The government had allocated MVR 2.9 billion to NSPA in this year's budget but the amount was cut by 16 percent and included MVR 1.9 billion in the budget proposed for next year.
But it had not cut the funds for people with special needs in the budget and has included MVR 100 million more in next year's budget than this year's budget.
