The Maldives government has already utilized 60% of the budget allocated for Aasandha for the fiscal year 2023.
Aasandha is the state-initiated health insurance and social protection initiative with the aim of supporting Maldivian citizens in their medical needs.
Statistics from the Ministry of Finance revealed that the government has already utilized MVR628.1 million out of the annual total of MVR1,045.0 million (MVR1.05 billion) allocated in the budget.
The government had spent only MVR345 million during the first quarter in 2022, but that was against an annual total of MVR730 million; almost MVR300 million less than this year’s allocation.
While the government’s expense towards its health insurance program surged compared to last year, the World Bank has already recommended a series of austerity measures to reduce surging expenses of the state, and make specific recommendations to cut down spending on Aasandha and other subsidies.
The Maldives government in light of this had previously proposed measures, however none of those have been put to effect.