Malé, Maldives – Special parliamentary committee selected to look in to the government’s request to extend the overdraw period for the Public account in Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has passed to allow the government to extend the period by an additional year.
A nine member committee to investigate the overdraw request was formed after a motion proposed by MP of Alifushi constituency Mohamed Rasheed and supported by MP of Maradhoo constituency Ibrahim Shareef was passed with 51 votes earlier today with the task of looking in to the governments request before 00:00 tonight and send the committee report to parliament floor tomorrow.
Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed had requested the committee to finish the report by tomorrow and also told that if the political parties agreed, a special parliament sitting would be held tomorrow to vote on the committee report.
The committee included;
- Mohamed Aslam, Hithadhoo north constituency (Chair)
- Ilyas Labeeb, Hulhudhoo constituency (Deputy Chair)
- Yauqoob Abdulla, Dhandhoo constituency
- Hussein Shameem, Henveiru south constituency
- Ibrahim Naseem, Thulusdhoo constituency
- Ahmed Shiyam, Meedhoo constituency
- Qasim Ibrahim, Maamigili constituency
- Mohamed Saeed, Maavashu constituency
- Mohamed Rasheed Hussain, Alifushi constituency
The Maldivian Parliament previously approved the suspension of Article 32 (a)(b)(e) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, ending on 26 April 2021. This would allow for MVR 4.4 billion to be overdrawn from the MMA Public account.
Citing that Maldives has not been able to overcome the negative impact on the economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer, on behalf of the state, requested for the extension of this period to 26 April 2022.
The state’s request to extend the overdraw period for the Public account was sent through the Ministry of Finance to secure funds for day to day expenses such as government employee salaries, according to an MDP MP in an interview to a local news outlet.
