The state revenue and grants increased by 10.8% in September 2019 according to the Monthly Fiscal Development statistics by Ministry of Finance.
The most recently published data indicates the state expenditure for the review month reached MVR2,541.1 million whereas the revenue and grants for September 2019 exclusively reached MVR1,734.9 million.
The major portion of the spending was directed on recurrent expenditure, where Maldives government spent MVR843.8 million on salaries, wages and pensions of public sector employees. In addition to this, MVR824.3 million was spent on state’s administrative and operational expenses.
Though in September the spending winded down, state spent MVR299.5 million on Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP).
The primary source of income to Maldives state in review month came from Goods and Services Tax (GST) – which is the combined Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST) as well as General Goods and Services Tax (GGST) – with a collection of MVR519.0 million.
Other taxes and grants received to government in September was observed at MVR566.6 million. Import Duty collection for the review month reached MVR291.2 million.
Revenue and grants increased 10.8% in review month compared to the same month last year, which was mainly contributed from the surge in tax revenues, non-tax revenues as well as the grants received to state.
Increase in tax revenues comes directly from the hike in Import Duties, Goods and Services Taxes and Airport Service Charge while non-tax revenues increased due to the visible increase from the dividends from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
The expenditure exclusively for the month of September 2019 increased by 25.5% compared to the corresponding period last year. This effect was mainly attributed to the bump in recurrent expenditure by 38.9% in the review month compared to the same period last year.
Recurrent expenditure’s rise comes as a direct result of the increased spending on personal emoluments, grants, contributions, state subsidies and even the hike in traveling expenses of state officials.
While recurrent expenditure observed a significant surge in the spending curve, capital expenditure followed the opposite trend dropping by 13.5% which came in effect over notable decline in PSIP spending and investment outlays.
Fiscal balance for the review month was observed at an all overall budget deficit of MVR806.2 million.
