The government has significantly reduced its recurrent expenditure in the first 11 days of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Finance Ministry.
According to the weekly revenue and expenditure figures released by the Finance Ministry, the government spent 524 million MVR from January 1st to the 11th. While the previous administration had spent 668.7 million MVR during the same period last year.
According to the figures, government expenditure has been reduced by 144 million MVR at the beginning of the year. This equates to a 21 percent reduction in government spending, year-over-year.
The largest expenditure during the period last year was on recurrent costs. Recurrent expenditure stood at 518.6 million MVR from January 1st to 11th last year. Recurrent expenditure stood at 392 million MVR during the period.
Therefore, the government's expenditure on recurrent costs has decreased by 126.4 million MVR compared to the same period last year. That's a 24 percent decrease year-over-year.
The budget of 49.8 billion MVR for this year is expected to spend 34.8 billion MVR on recurrent expenditure. The total expenditure this year is estimated at 47.6 billion MVR.
The President has made a presidential promise to reduce any wasteful spending of the government budget and to reduce the gap between government revenue and expenditure.