Supplementary budget bill moves to committee stage

The bill on the 2024 supplementary budget concluded on Thursday, subsequently being lodged with the Budget Committee for further assessment. The bill had been proposed to increase the public accounts to meet government’s expenditure needs as the year’s official budget is close to depletion.

Minister of Finance, Moosa Zameer at Thursday’s parliamentary sitting proposed a supplementary of MVR 5,119,508,129, which once included will bump this year’s state budget to MVR 55 billion.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the supplementary budget for this year became necessity since the government’s expenditure for various sectors exceeded beyond the budgeted total. It also added this was owed due to the discrepancies in recording the financials in 2023.

The ministry further noted that the supplementary budget has been proposed well ahead of the fully budgetary depletion, and in line with the Public Finance Act. The ministry also added that 76 percent of the original MVR 49.8 billion has already been spent.

The supplementary budget consists of MVR 1.5 billion for recurrent expenditure, which include:

• Salaries, wages and pensions: MVR 24.4 million
• Medical supplies: MVR 200 million
• Subsidies: MVR 1 billion
• Medical support: MVR 262.6 million

As per the proposed supplementary budget, capital expenditure total is MVR 3.6 billion. The allocations include:

• Land reclamation, construction and infrastructure: MVR 2 billion
• Capital contribution: MVR 441 million
• Contingency: MVR 650 million
• Student loan: MVR 458.4 million

The proposed supplementary budget for this year is below initial projects, since initially it was projected the year’s supplementary budget go be as less as MVR 10 billion.