President of Maldives Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has voiced a stern rebuttal over opposition criticism on 2018 state budget referred debt inflation.
Speaking at a ceremony held on Sunday afternoon at Dharubaaruge - to celebrate the allegiance new members to ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Yameen highlighted that at the time when he was sworn into office, the country's debt floated around MVR 29 billion while it has reached MVR 43 billion as now - marking a MVR 14 billion of debt increase.
However President had justified this increase heavily criticizing the former regimes for outstanding debt which fell to Yameen's administration. According to President Yameen, a total of MVR 13 billion was cleared during the current regime which mostly accosted for debt mounted in previous regimes meaning should the debt had been settled accordingly in former administrations the current state government would only register for just a meager MVR 1 billion as state debt.
The head of the state had thrown heavy shades at ex-President Mohamed Nasheed's administration for the turmoil-ridden issue of handing the international airport to India's GMR - which had resulted in several financial setbacks and discrepancies, and stressed the current administration had to loan out USD 300 million for the development of the project.
The apparent MVR 1 billion is state debt for the current government would thus be nullified with a loan granted worth MVR 5 billion (USD 300 million - for airport development) resulting in arrears to the government.
Yameen also threw specific figures as his criticism to Nasheed's administration as he stated that the registered MVR 14 billion state debt means a MVR 3.5 billion per year for four years while his former "colleague's" government accumulated MVR 25 billion of debt meaning a MVR 8.3 billion for the 3-year period of his rule.
