Former Finance Budget Executive Sarwas: Government budget will increase expenditure, deficit, and debt

Former Chief Financial Budget Executive of the Ministry of Finance and former Pension Board member Ahmed Sarwas Adam has stated that the budget proposed and submitted by the government for next year is a budget where expenditure, deficit, and debt will increase. Speaking at a press conference held under the name "Debt Increases, Services Decrease" by the MDP's Macroeconomic Committee, Sarwas said that although the government claims that expenditures will decrease due to the reduction in debt repayment after paying sukuk, expenditures have actually increased by 6.6 percent. Accordingly, Sarwas stated that expenditures have increased from 49.3 billion rufiyaa to 52.6 billion rufiyaa. He further stated that financing of 18.9 billion rufiyaa needs to be obtained and that there is no credible plan to secure this financing. The deficit has also reached 7.3 percent of GDP, which amounts to a deficit of 9.4 billion rufiyaa. Looking at the years included in the budget, among the years from 2025 to 29, 2027 is proposed to have the largest deficit in those years. Furthermore, it cannot be accepted that any firm reform exists to reduce expenditure over the next three years. Similarly, Sarwas stated that none of the things said to be done within the 2026 budget can be seen anywhere. In this regard, noting that President Muizzu had stated that the 2026 budget is a housing budget, Sarwas stated that 1.6 billion rufiyaa was approved in the budget designated for housing. However, Sarwas stated that less than 600 million has been spent on housing. He also stated that more has been spent on fuel subsidies and SOEs than what was allocated in the budget for these expenses. At the same time, Sarwas has stated that the government is not making efforts to maintain fiscal discipline because recurrent expenditure has increased in the budget proposed and submitted for next year.