Aasandha, subsidy spending MVR 2.3 billion over budget

While the government retracted earlier plans under the economic reform agenda to cut expenditure on Aasandha and subsidies, financial statistics reveal that MVR 2.3 billion was spent over the budgeted amount on these initiatives. 

The weekly fiscal report for the final week of 2025 shared by the Finance Ministry indicates that as of December 31, 2025, MVR 2.59 billion was spent on Aasandha. 

This is MVR 734.5 million higher than the budgeted MVR 1.85 billion. 

Aasandha expenditure in 2024 was at MVR 2.42 billion, with this year's spending exceeding by MVR 164.4 million. 

Expenditure on subsidies last year was at MVR 3.45 billion. The government initially aimed to reform subsidies and introduce targeted subsidies, and for this reason had budgeted MVR 1.86 billion as subsidy expenditure. The actual expenditure, however, is MVR 1.59 billion higher than the budgeted amount. 

The budget planned to introduce targeted subsidies in four areas, with the intention to bring down subsidy expenditure by 60 percent. 

However, with rising public concerns, the government backtracked on the reform plans mid-year and decided not to bring changes to Aasandha and subsidy policies.