Parliament of Maldives has passed the largest ever state budget in Maldives. The government initially proposed a budget which was a few million below the USD 2 billion mark for the year 2019.
However, after extensive discussions and debates in the Budget Reviewing Committee, the parliament passed a state budget of USD 2 billion making it the largest ever budget for the Maldivian state. While the budget was passed, the parliament also passed all amendments proposed by the Budget Reviewing Committee. The budget was passed unanimously with the vote of 72 parliamentarians present.
The state budget was proposed by the previous government prior to the swearing-in of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. However, while submitting the budget to the parliament, former Minister of Finance and Treasury Ahmed Munawar revealed the budget was compiled with President Solih's advisory.
The state would receive USD 1.5 billion as foreign aid which is about USD 20 million more than the initially proposed amount, according to the budget. Meanwhile, during the budget reviewing process, the committee allocated the preferred and proposed amount to government offices, in addition to bringing major changes to the budget of Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).