Budget debate to begin on Nov. 16

Parliament Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed has announced that the parliamentary debate on the proposed state budget for 2021 will begin on November 16.

The MVR 34.79 billion proposed budget for 2021 was presented to the Parliament by Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer on Monday morning.

After Ameer concluded his statement, Nasheed announced that the budget will be sent to the Budget Committee later this Monday.

The Budget Committee will be composed by combining the Public Accounts Committee and the Economic Affairs Committee.

“We will be able to begin the budget debate on November 16. I expect the honorable parliamentarians will spend 21 hours on the budget debate. However, the time allocation for the budget debate will be decided by the General Purpose Committee,” said Nasheed.

He said that parliamentarians will be working day and evening on the budget debate on November 16, 17 and 18.

Nasheed said that he expects the Budget Committee to complete its review and present their report to the parliament floor on November 19.

He said that the last date for submission of revisions to the committee report will be November 22, after which the debate on the final committee report will begin on November 23.

Nasheed said he expects the debate on the committee report to take 10 hours, and the budget to be put to vote on November 26.

He said that the Parliament will be open on November 16 though it is a public holiday.