The latest Monthly Fiscal Development update from Maldives Ministry of Finance has revealed the revenue and grants to state increased by 10.8% in the month of September 2019.
According to the latest statistics from the ministry the state expenditure for the review month was at MVR2,541.1 million (MVR2.5 billion) while the revenue and grants reached MVR1,734.9 million (MVR1.7 billion) for 2019.
In September, Maldives government spent MVR843.8 million on salaries, wages and pensions of public sector employees while MVR824.3 million was spent on administrative and operational expenses of the state.
In addition to this, MVR299.5 million was spent on Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) during the review month.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) remained the main contributor to Maldives state in September exclusively, with a collection of MVR519.0 million. This is by excluding the MVR566.6 million collected from other revenue sources and grants included.
The collection of Import Duty for the review month reached MVR291.2 million making this tax-based income generator the second strongest contributor to government.
The revenue and grants for September 2019 increased by 10.8% compared to the corresponding month in 2018, which was largely attributed to the hike in tax revenues, non-tax revenues and even the grants received to state.
The surge in tax revenues were attributed to the increase in Import Duties, Goods and Services Tax (GST), Green Tax and Airport Service Charge while the increase in non-tax revenue was attributed to the hike in receipt from the dividends of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
The total expenditure for the review month increased by 25.5% compared to the corresponding month in 2018, which came majorly due to the surge in recurrent expenditure. Recurrent expenditure increased by 38.9% compared to the same period last year.
This rise came to effect due to increased spending on personal emoluments, grants, contributions, government subsidies and traveling expenses.
Though recurrent expenditure observed notable hike, the spending on capital expenditure dropped by 13.5% due to the visible decline in spending on PSIP and investment outlays.
Fiscal balance of September 2019 was observed at an overall deficit of MVR806.2 million.