MVR 400 million added to budget to fulfil pledges

Minister of Finance Abdulla Jihad has said that the government has proposed to add MVR 400 million to the 2014 state budget to facilitate the fulfilment of the pledges made by the government.

Speaking at the Parliament Public Accounts Committee today, Jihad said that MVR 1.5 billion has been added to the budget, and that priority was given to payment of bills by the government.

The MVR 400 million includes MVR 200 million for projects to promote youth welfare and MVR 45 million for agricultural developmental projects, said Jihad.

It also includes the expenses required to fulfil the pledge of providing an income of MVR 10,000 monthly to every fisherman regardless of their catch.

Jihad said that the two major areas of expenses in the budget are education and health.

He said that to reduce government expenses, salary structures and allowances of government employees will be revised.

The day-to-day running of the government will be financed by income from government projects instead of T-bills, said Jihad.

He also said that rent will be collected upfront from resorts for which lease periods have been extended, which will facilitate the collection of MVR 1.2 billion.

Other methods to be employed by the government to increase income include increasing TGST and Departure Tax from $18 to $25, increasing revenue stamp prices, changing the Import Tax law, and introducing telecommunication tax, said Jihad.