Minister of Finance and Treasury, Ahmed Munawwar, presented the proposed 2018 state budget to parliament on Wednesday.

The proposed budget is a total of MVR 27.9 billion, over a billion more than the record MVR 26.7 billion passed for this year.

The 2018 state budget projects a revenue of MVR 22.4 billion, with a Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) of 3.2 percent. Next year's deficit is estimated to be MVR 2.5 billion.

While MVR 26.7 billion was passed for 2017, a supplementary budget of MVR 493 million was passed by parliament back in October this year. Hence this year's total budget has reached MVR 27.3 billion. While a revenue of MVR 27.3 million was estimated, Minister Munawwar had admitted that the state did not receive the anticipated earnings.