Govt exceeds travel budget by MVR 10 million

The government has exceeded the travel budget allocated for the year in the State Budget, data issued by the Ministry of Finance reveals.

The data shows that this year, the government has spent MVR 10 million more on travel than was budgeted. MVR 213 million has been spent on travel this year thus far.

In the last four years, the government's travel budget has consistently exceeded the initial allotted amount. The only exception was in 2020, during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The year with the highest travel expenditure was 2019, when a total of MVR 223 million was spent on travel expenses

A total of MVR 38 billion has already been spent this year in terms of total expenditures. Of this, the recurrent expenditure is MVR 26 billion. Civil service salaries and other operational expenses make up the majority of the recurring costs.

Furthermore, MVR 9.6 billion from the annual State Budget was spent on developmental projects.