The Parliament has passed the proposed State Budget for next year without any changes along with the Supplementary Budget for this year.
The government had submitted a budget of MVR 42.68 billion and the MPs debated on the budget before the Budget Committee deliberated on the proposed budget.
The Committee then decided to pass the budget after adding another MVR 160 million to the budget and making it grow up to MVR 42.8 billion.
It had also given the green signal to MVR 5.8 billion supplementary budget that would support this year's budget.
MPs representing the opposing coalition submitted 13 amendments to the budget committee report and MDP MP for Maafannu Constituency Ibrahim Rasheed also submitted 3 other amendments. But all these were eventually thrown out.
Then both the proposed budget and the Supplementary budget were put to vote and 61 out of the 66 MP present voted to approve both budgets while 8 others voted against them.
The Finance Ministry has said that with the proposed budget the government had tried to minimize the financial risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It said that the budget aims to maintain the sustainability of fiscality and debt management.
The Ministry had estimated that the government would get MVR 32.1 billion through income and aid. While it forecasts an annual income of MVR 29.62 billion next year, the Ministry expects MVR 2.48 billion as aid and grants.
It said that next year, the Maldives would enjoy an economic growth of 7.6 percent. It further said that this was higher than the average economic rate of the country in the last 10 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry stated that it estimates that the government deficit would reach MVR 8.46 billion next year. But it warned that this figure could almost double without increasing revenue or without cost-cutting measures.
