80% of Aasandha’s 2023 budget exhausted

Over 80 percent of the annual budget for the state health insurance service, Aasandha, had already been spent near April’s end, according to records released by Finance Ministry.

The weekly fiscal development report released by Finance Ministry shows that over MVR 807 million has been spent on Aasandha as of April 20. This is more than 80 percent of the MVR 1 billion budgeted for Aasandha this year.

The figure is a 50 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Over half of the budget had already been spent in the first quarter of this year.

The actual spending had exceeded the budgeted amount last year as well. MVR 730 million had been budgeted for 2022, but the actual spending had risen to MVR 1.6 billion by the end of the year, prompting the government to submit a supplementary budget of MVR 906 million.

The high spending on Aasandha comes after the World Bank recently advised the Maldivian government to reduce subsidies and expenditure in order to improve the economy. The financial institute advised that fiscal consolidation is necessary to keep debt repayment at a sustainable level.