Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad has claimed “several government offices” unable to cut their budgets by 15 percent ahead of a June 20 deadline were now working on submitting “revisions” for their spending.
Jihad told Minivan News today that the Finance Ministry was presently providing assistance to several departments that had failed to curb spending within deadlines set by the government. The finance minister did not specify which offices had failed to make the required spending cuts within the time period.
According to Sun Online, government offices and councils were requested to enact a 15 percent cut to their budgets by June 15. Independent institutions were meanwhile asked to reduce their outgoings by the same amount by June 20.
The cabinet took the decision last month to approve 15 percent spending cuts within government institutions in an attempt to reduce the state budget by Rf2 billion, according to the report.
Official government figures have indicated that inflation rose to an annual rate of 16.53 percent in April. Earlier in the year, the Finance Committee estimated that the current budget deficit would reach 27 percent of GDP, or Rf9.1 billion (US$590 million).
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