President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu wants to retain the budget presented to the parliament for the next fiscal year at MVR 49 billion, his budget committee member Ghassan Maumoon has said.

Speaking on SanguTV's programme on Monday night, Ghassan said one of the first things Muizzu decided was not to increase recurring costs beyond a certain threshold, adding that Muizzu wanted to prepare the budget within the parameters accepted by credit rating makers.

"The President-elect's office has now announced that the budget will be within MVR 49 billion. That was the first thing the president decided. This means reducing our debt to GDP. It's now high enough in double digits," Ghassan said.

He said Dr. Muizzu's government will work from the very beginning to reduce expenses and since Dr. Muizzu is capable of doing things, there will be no problems even if the budget is small.

Dr. Muizzu will provide the infrastructure needed by the people through a small budget, he said.

Ghassan said the government had added MVR 200 million to the MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget presented to parliament at Dr. Muizzu's request, which was increased specifically to the first 100-day pledges.