Male’, Maldives – Income received by the government in American Dollars drop by 30 percent in the month of October compared to the month before.
According to the monthly revenue collection statistics released by Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), the state got only USD 4.68 million. The main source of USD income to the state was through Tourism Goods and Service Tax (TGST) which contributed to a total of 70.7 percent followed by Green Tax which contributed to 12.2 percent of the monthly total.
The government had received a total income of MVR 390.57 million in total revenue for the month of October this year which is a decrease of 57.9 percent from the total income the state collected in October of 2019.
MIRA stated that the drop of income was a result of declined tourist arrivals due the Covid-19 pandamic which has lead to the decline in the economic activity of the country and tax collection from the tourism sector. The taxation authority also stated that these factors also contributed to the decline of GST and Green Tax as well.
As the Maldivian economy has contracted this much this year after the actions taken by the government because of the Covid-19 pandemics situation in Maldives, the government has started several campaign to boost the Maldivian tourism sector such as opening the borders for tourists on July 15 with strict SOP’s in place for resorts to follow.
In addition to this Ministry of Tourism and Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) recently launched a border miles program named “Maldives Border Miles”. The program was launched by the Minister of Tourism Honorable Dr.Abdulla Mausoom and is aimed to boost tourism in Maldives. This is the first of its kind loyalty program developed in the entire world.
The government and local banks have been providing financial support and loan moratoriums to almost all businesses in Maldives. One of the actions taken by the government has been to defer resort rent by six months as a measure to lower the burden on the resorts operators.
Bank of Maldives has also been providing loan facilities under their Covid-19 recovery scheme specially designed for tourism industry where non-resort businesses in the industry could borrow up to MVR 1 million while resorts could borrow up to MVR 7.71 million. The bank had recently announced a COVID-relief support for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
