Government cuts office budgets to reduce expenses

Finance Ministry said that the budgets allocated to government offices have been reduced, to reduce expenses because income of government was lower than expected.

A circular publicized by Finance Ministry stated that the expected income to the government specified in the budget approved by the parliament have been delayed for various reasons, and because government income is less than expected amount, government has decided to reduce expenses in order to reduce budget deficit for the end of this year.

It was stated in the circular that 20 percent from recurrent budget codes, excluding salary and allowance codes, and remaining capital codes have been cut down from all government offices.

The cabinet has proposed a budget of MVR 16.5 billion for this year, and the expected income was MVR 11 billion. However, parliament approved a budget of MVR 15.2 billion for this year.