Ministry of Finance has resubmitted the supplementary budget to the Parliament after making corrections. The Parliament had sent back the supplementary budget for not meeting the requirements of the Public Finance Act.
Speaking to PSM News, Chief Financial Budget Executive Ahmed Sharuvash highlighted that the Public Finance Act was amended this year to include the requirement to submit a programme budget. As such, he said that the supplementary budget was formulated with the inclusion of the programme structure and that the budget has now been resubmitted with additional information requested by the Parliament.
The finance ministry submitted the supplementary budget to the Parliament in accordance with Article 96 of the Constitution, which states that the ministry can propose a supplementary budget if the expenditure exceeds the projected estimate in the approved state budget. The ministry stated that the supplementary budget will mainly be spent on Public Sector Investment Programmes (PSIP), national health insurance, subsidies, and capital contributions to state-owned companies. The ministry noted that the productivity for PSIP projects increased during the year and other expenditures exceeded the budgeted amount, adding that the planned expenditure reduction measures have not been properly implemented.
The proposed supplementary budget allocates USD117 million for subsidies, USD78 million for the national health insurance scheme Aasandha, and USD110 million. The Parliament approved a USD2.8 billion state budget for 2023 and the supplement would increase the budget to USD3.2 billion.