Maldives’ COVID-19 expenditure nears MVR 4 billion

Records released by Finance Ministry show government expenditure on COVID-19 has risen to MVR 3.9 billion.  

According to the weekly updates on COVID-19 expenditure, the government spent MVR 2.1 billion on health and social sector and MVR 1.7 billion on economic response by the end of October 14.  

The greatest expenditure in health and social sector was registered by Health Ministry. Health Ministry spent MVR 836.3 million. The bulk of spending was on allowances and on supplies and requisites for service provision which included medical consumables. 

Health Ministry has spent MVR 587.5 million on supplies and requisites, and MVR 65.6 million on allowances. 

The spending on economic response went to the COVID-19 recovery loan scheme and income support allowance. 

MVR 1.1 billion has been spent on the COVID-19 recovery loan scheme, MVR 420.7 million has been spent on income support allowance, MVR 172.4 million on subsidizing electricity bills, and MVR 26 million on subsidizing water bills. 

Meanwhile, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) spent MVR 784.5 million, Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) spent MVR 198 million, Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) spent MVR 67.6 million, Disaster Management Fund spent MVR 84.1 million, and National Social Protection Agency (NSPA) spent MVR 54 million.