Committee sets out 21-hour debate time for state budget 2020

The Parliament’s General-Purpose Committee has set out a 21-hour debate time for the state budget that was presented to the Parliament for the year 2020.

The Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed stated in today’s parliamentary session that every MP would get 15-minutes to speak about the budget according to the regulations set out by the General-Purpose Committee. After the Committee phase, each MP would get seven minutes to speak about the budget.

“If each MP gets 15-minutes to speak about the budget on the first instance, that means a debate time totaling 21 hours,” said Nasheed. The Speaker also stated that the debate would begin next Tuesday and sessions would go on at night even.

Kinbidhoo MP Mohamed Naashiz was appointed as the Budget Committee chair last night while Alifushi MP Mohamed Rasheed Hussain (Bigey) was appointed as deputy chair. The temporary Budget Committee is formed of MPs serving on the Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Economic Affairs of the Parliament.

The state budget for the year 2020 was presented to the Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer. The MVR 37.5 billion was described as the perfect budget and called on MPs to pass the budget as it was presented.