Finance Minister Moosa Zameer has asked Parliament to allocate additional funds from the contingency budget to meet the mandated 5% block grant allocation for local councils in 2025. The government’s proposed MVR 56.6 billion budget initially set aside MVR 1.4 billion for councils, sparking concerns from councils and political parties. Zameer has now committed to raising this allocation to over MVR 2 billion to align with the Decentralisation Act.