Aasandha expenses not reduced by new year

The results of the government's economic reform agenda to curb Aasandha waste and reduce expenditure, has gone up instead.

According to the weekly financial statements released by the Finance Ministry, MVR 413.6 million of the MVR 1.85 billion allocated for Asandha this year, was spent by February 13.

This is an increase of 72 percent compared to the MVR 240.3 million spent during the same period last year.

Although Aasandha's spending did not go down, the total administrative and operating expenditure of the government reduced significantly this year compared to last year.

Administrative expenditure, which stood at MVR 2.2 billion as of February 13 last year, was down to MVR 1.7 billion this year. This is a decrease of about MVR 440 million.

Along with this, the total expenditure has also showed significant downward trend so far this year, with MVR 3 billion spent so far as opposed to the MVR 4.1 billion spent this time last year.

About MVR one billion from the total expenses was saved by also holding down recurrent expenses. However, the biggest contributor to this reduction in expenditure is the decline in capital expenditure.

This year, capital expenditure declined to MVR 169.8 million from MVR 855.8 million last year.

Infrastructure development projects (PSIP) expenses were also down MVR 324.8 million from MVR 819.4 million last year.

The saved chunk from the reduced expenses did not have the most desirable effect on the budget deficit due to the decline in revenue during this period.

As of February 13, 2013, revenue and grants stood at MVR 4.8 billion. However, the figure declined to MVR 4.4 billion during the same period this year.

Alongside this, both tax and non-tax revenue so far this year had also declined.

Tax revenue fell to MVR 3.9 billion this year from MVR 4.1 billion last year. Non-tax income declined to MVR 541.3 million during this period from MVR 718.7 million this year.

As of February 13, 2013, the government's revenue was MVR 1.4 billion higher than the total expenditure of the government.