Muizzu wants to cap 2024 budget at MVR 49b
The committee is formulating a budget that meets the standards accepted by the international community and credit rating agencies, Ghassan said.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
President-elect Dr Mohamed Muizzu wants to keep the budget for next year at MVR 49 billion, his budget committee member Ghassan Maumoon said.
The budget for next year is due to be submitted to parliament by the end of this month. The Finance Ministry is preparing the budget with the participation of the incoming government.
Speaking on 'Sangu TV', Ghassan Maumoon, one of the vice presidents of PPM, who was part of the budget committee formed by Muizzu to help him prepare the budget, said that president-elect's first decision was not to increase the government's expenditure beyond a certain amount. He said the president-elect had decided to cap the budget within MVR 49 billion.
"The President-elect's office has now announced that the budget will be kept within MVR 49 billion. That is the first thing the President [Muizzu] decided to do," Ghassan said in response to a question from a journalist on Sangu TV on Sunday evening.
On the work of the eight-member budget committee, which includes Ghassan and many ministers of the first government of the PPM, he added that the President-elect's view on formulating the budget next year is:
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To formulate a budget that meets the standards accepted by the international community and credit rating agencies
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Work has been underway to achieve that goal since day one, he said
"This means reducing our debt-to-GDP ratio. Now [debt] is in double digits, quite high. That's why the rating is down," Ghassan said.
"Even if the budget is small, once a leader who knows how to do this work takes over, that is, when President Muizzu takes over, many of the infrastructure development works and other works that benefit the people will be done within this budget."
Regarding the work of the committee, Ghassan added:
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As Muizzu promised during the campaign, the government will include those projects in next year's budget
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In addition, the projects required to be implemented in the first year have also been included in the budget for next year
On October 18, the government presented a supplementary budget of MVR 6.5 billion to parliament. On the supplementary budget, Ghassan said:
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The budget has been increased by MVR 200 million by the office of the President-elect; That is, to cover the expenses from November 17 to December 31
