Malé, Maldives – The Finance Ministry today requested the Maldives Parliament to extend the overdraw period by an additional year. The parliament has previously granted overdraw approvals in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Maldivian Parliament previously approved the suspension of Article 32 (a)(b)(e) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act allowing for MVR 4.4 billion to be overdrawn from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Public account.
The request by the government to extend the overdraw period by an additional year was accepted unanimously by the parliament to be sent to the Public Accounts Committee of the Maldives Parliament for further investigation.
While ruling party MDP parliamentarians spoke defending the government’s overdraw request, the opposition members stated that they do not support the request.
In the government letter, the Finance Minister stated that Maldives has still not recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic despite reopening the border and required an extension to the overdraw period to provide services required by the citizens.
Maldives has overdrawn MVR 2.8 billion since the initial overdraw approval in 2020 and the amount is expected to escalate to MVR 4 billion by the end of 2021.
