The government is set to introduce a record budget of MVR39.6 billion for next year, announced on Monday by the finance ministry.
The government has budgeted MVR37 billion as next year’s spending, according to the fiscal plan for the next three years. The government hopes to keep the budget deficit at 6.5 percent of GDP while building a fiscal buffer of MVR5.5 for next year’s new development ventures.
The budget proposal for next year will probably call for more scrutiny since the new government after taking office nearly a year ago has so far failed to make effective use of the budget of this year despite receiving an enhanced budget in August.
Parliament authorized an initial budget of MVR 30.2 billion for the current year. In August, however, the government got the parliament to sign off as a budget supplement on an additional MVR1.7 billion.
The government has been heavily criticized by the opposition for failure to initiate this year’s major infrastructure projects with the budget reflecting unused PSIP funds.
