Majlis passes MVR 27.457 billion Projected State Budget for 2016

People’s Majlis on Monday passed the MVR 27.457 billion projected state budget for 2016, proposed by government.

59 members voted in favor of the budget while 19 members voted against the budget, with opposition party – Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) issuing a three-line whip not to participate in the voting.

MDP had proposed 11 revisions to the budget, with none of it gaining approval.

The budget was sent to Majlis by Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad, while Budget Committee finished reviewing the budget last Thursday night with an additional amount of MVR 20 million allocated to judiciary.

The budget includes an allocation of MVR 9.1 billion to Public Sector Investment Programs.

Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad had said that of the MVR 9.1 billion allocated for Public Sector Investment Programs, MVR 5.2 billion would be spent by government while the remaining MVR 2.7 billion would be funded through free aid and MVR 1.2 billion via trust funds.

The budget also includes MVR 1.2 billion allocated for land reclamation and road construction projects, which includes 19 land reclamation projects which will start in 2016.

59% of the projected budget is recurrent expenditure.

Minister Jihad said that while 41% of the projected budget was capital expenditure, of which 80% was for PSIP.

Projected income free aid for 2016 is MVR 22.8 billion, which includes MVR 16.8 billion from tax, and MVR 3.7 billion from other income, MVR 1.5 billion in free financial aid, and an additional MVR 5 billion from proposed income generating projects.

Minister Jihad said that projected budget for 2016 was MVR 3.4 billion in deficit, which is 6% of Gross Domestic Product. He said that government planned to handle the deficit through aid from international sources and income generated from within the country.