MVR 808 million allocated as grant for the Judiciary in next year's budget

The government has allocated MVR 808 million as a grant for the Judiciary sector in the state budget for the upcoming year.

In September, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced the decision to grant the Judiciary financial empowerment by allocating a specific percentage of state revenue to the sector in the next annual budget.

The President stated that the cabinet had discussed bringing about a significant change, ensuring the Judiciary receives an unprecedented level of financial and administrative independence with the budget approved for the coming year.

While presenting the budget to the Parliament today, Minister of Finance Moosa Zameer stated that as the government decided this year to newly grant the Judiciary financial independence, the sector's expenditure in this budget has been converted to a grant, unlike in previous years.

He added that this grant amount is MVR 250 million more than the current expenditure of the Judiciary.

The government's decision last month to allocate a fixed percentage of state revenue and disburse the funds as a block grant under a specific mechanism aims to allow the Judiciary to operate more independently and have full freedom to manage expenditures through a financially empowered system.

Alongside the grant for the Judiciary, the budget for the coming year allocates MVR 2.5 billion as the Council Block Grant for local councils. This is an increase of approximately MVR 300,000 compared to this year.

The total budget proposed by the government for the upcoming year is MVR 64.2 billion, which is MVR 8 billion more than this year's budget.

However, President Muizzu claimed today that the budget proposed for next year is actually smaller than this year's budget.

"Excluding the MVR 9.3 billion allocated for the repayment of Sukuk and bonds, the 2026 budget is MVR 55 billion," the President stated in an X post.

The government has announced that the highest priority in next year's budget will be given to the health sector.