Additional 600 million spent on subsidy

An additional expense of MVR 600 million has been incurred from the determined state budget for subsidies by the government.

As per statistics from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, MVR 9.2 billion has been spent on Aasandha and welfare services as of yet. This year's state budget set aside MVR 8.6 billion for subsidy expenses.

The subsidy expenses saw such an increase due to Aasandha and other subsidy expenditures increasing. Aasandha saw an expense of MVR 2 billion, which is an additional MVR 100 million that was designated in the state budget. An expenditure of MVR 3.2 billion was seen for other welfare expenses. This is an increase of MVR 1.2 billion from the figures determined by the state budget.

There were four subsidies targeted for expenses within this year's state budget. There was also a plan in place to reduce total subsidy expenditure by 60 percent. Nevertheless, due to public concern, it was decided in the middle of the year that the relevant government policy and the subsequent subsidy expenditure would not be changed. This is also one of the reasons subsidy expenditures have increased.

The budget book estimated that subsidy expenditures would reach MVR 10.9 billion by the end of the year. The budget also estimates that next year's subsidy expenses would reach MVR 10.5 billion.