Expenditures from the state budget have decreased by 21.0 percent, bringing the total balance of the state budget to a surplus of 1.4 billion rufiyaa. According to the Weekly Fiscal Development Report released by the Ministry of Finance, which includes the amount spent from the state budget and the revenue received by the state as of June 19 this year, 16.2 billion rufiyaa has been spent from the state budget by the end of last week. This is 21% lower compared to the expenditure made by the state during the same period last year. As such, while the state’s recurrent expenditure has decreased by 3.4%, capital expenditure has decreased by 70.1%.
58.7% of recurrent expenditure has been spent on administrative operations of government offices, which is 8.6% lower compared to the same period last year. The cost of items procured for office operations has decreased by 70%, while maintenance and repair costs have decreased by 20.7%. Additionally, travel expenses from the state budget have decreased by 15.3% compared to last year. Along with this, the expenditure on various aids and subsidies provided by the state has decreased by 3.6% compared to last year.
Although these expenses have been reduced, the expenditure on Aasandha (national health insurance) has increased by 1.4%, while medical welfare expenses have decreased by 35.2%. In addition, the amount of money spent on items procured for service provision and grants given to councils has increased compared to last year. Furthermore, the amount of money paid for state debt has increased by 169.5% compared to the same period last year, and the amount deposited into the Sovereign Development Fund has increased by 45.6%. By the end of last week, 1.6 billion rufiyaa had been spent from the state budget as capital expenditure. As such, 1.4 billion rufiyaa has been spent on infrastructure assets this year, including expenses for road construction, bridge development, and airport development. This is 13.0% of the budget approved by the People’s Majlis for these purposes this year.
While the state budget formulated for this year estimates that 12.4 billion rufiyaa will be spent on the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP), 1.6 billion rufiyaa has been spent on such programs so far this year. Although a large percentage of PSIP expenses during this period last year were spent on land reclamation and road construction projects, a large percentage of PSIP expenses this year are attributed to various projects related to solving transportation difficulties. As such, a total of 816.2 million rufiyaa has been spent on such projects this year. This includes expenses for completing Velana Airport. In addition, with the numerous efforts being made by the government this year to strengthen various policies related to PSIP, the total expenditure from the state budget on such programs has been reduced.
With this, 21.1 billion rufiyaa has been spent from the state budget by the end of last week, which is 7% lower compared to the expenditure made by the state during the same period last year. As such, while the state’s recurrent expenditure has decreased by 3.4%, capital expenditure has decreased by 70.1%. Consequently, the total surplus of the state budget has increased to 1.4 billion rufiyaa.
