The state budget has spent more on salaries so far this year than last year.
This year's budget is expected to spend MVR 15.7 billion on salaries, allowances and pensions.
According to the Weekly Fiscal Development Report released by the Finance Ministry, the state budget spent MVR 9.4 billion on salaries, allowances and pensions as of 28th last month.
Of this, MVR 4.2 billion was spent on salaries and allowances. This year's budget allocates MVR 7.7 billion for salaries and allowances. The remaining salaries and allowances were budgeted at MVR 3.5 billion. Salaries and allowances stood at MVR 3.9 billion during the same period last year.
Therefore, an additional MVR 218.4 million was spent on salaries during the period this year.
The budget has allocated MVR 6.2 billion for employee allowances while MVR 3.7 billion has been spent so far this year. That is an increase of MVR 155.1 million over the previous year. MVR 3.6 billion was spent for the same time period last year.
At the same time, the pension expenditure was higher. Thus:
Pensions: MVR 1.4 billion
Basic Pension: MVR 974.4 million
Retirement Benefits: MVR 465 million
While spending on salaries and allowances has increased, the government keeps saying that it aims to reduce spending as much as possible. However, costs are not being reduced in real time yet.
Meanwhile, the numbers of political employees were announced after the government was in office for one and a half years and with much prodding from the public regarding the non-disclosure of the number. On the night of July 16, the President's Office said there were 922 political employees in the government. That is 222 more employees than promised.
During the presidential campaign, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu promised not to increase the number of political posts to more than 700.
The opposition accuses the government of having more than 3,000 political employees.
And to this day, this government has not implemented any cost-cutting policies.
As the nation's economy declines, foreign organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have requested Aasandha and subsidy reforms. Several reforms, including those related to pensions, have been incorporated into this year's budget. At that point, high-ranking government officials stated that escaping the crisis would be impossible without reducing expenses. Nevertheless, these initiatives have not been put into action.