Maldives Finance Minister Gasim Ibrahim resigned on Thursday after an independent auditor general criticised the country's budget.
Gasim confirmed his resignation to Reuters.
"I don't think I should be [in the minister post]," Gasim said, declining to comment further.
His resignation comes a day after a report by the Auditor General and the Financial Committee of parliament revealed the 2008 state budget faces a deficit of 4.4 billion rufiyaa ($344 million).
In his first report since being appointed the country's first independent Auditor General, Ibrahim Naeem also said the budget failed to meet some basic accounting principles.
Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had rejected the report at a news conference on Thursday before Gasim's resignation.
"The auditor general's report does not have to be accepted by everyone," Gayoom said.
The International Monetary Fund last week warned the Maldives government to cut its "extraordinarily" high expenditure on state wages and subsidies and increase revenue collection or face possible high inflation.
The IMF said the 2008 budget posed risks to the Indian Ocean island nation's macroeconomic stability due to inadequate revenue and high government spending.
"The budget envisages overall expenditures of near 70 percent of GDP, an extraordinarily high level historically and internationally," the IMF said.
However, after the last week's IMF warning, Gasim told journalists there was no deficit.
Gasim is the fifth minister to leave the cabinet in the past eighteen months. ($1 = 12.8 Maldivian Rufiyaa) (Writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by David Fox)
Source: http://in.reuters.com
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