The Parliament's Budget Review Committee has approved to increase the proposed MVR 37.5 billion state budget for 2020 by an additional MVR 366 million.
The decision was made at a committee meeting held Wednesday night.
The increment to the proposed budget now brings the total budget figure to a record MVR 37.8 billion.
The additional funds will focus on development projects included under Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) projects. The funds will also top up the budget allocated for some government entities. Therefore, recurrent expenditure will also increase.
The Budget Review Committee is comprised of members from the Parliament's Economic Committee and the Public Accounts Committee. Although the committee has increased the proposed budget by MVR 366 million, it can only be approved after the parliament votes on the budget.
The additional funds will be raised through the sale of T-Bills. Therefore, T-bills worth MVR 929 million will need to be sold to meet the requirement.
While the estimated revenue for 2020 is MVR 29.92 billion, the increment also increases the budget deficit from MVR 5.7 billion to MVR 5.9 billion. The deficit amount will be raised through the same of a US$ 300 million Samurai bond to Japan, and through the sale of T-bills.
Photo: Majlis
