Male’, Maldives – Qasim Ibrahim, chairman and founder of Villa Group has said that Villa employees had a large salary deduction in April due to COVID-19 as the company did not have any money.
Speaking on a show at “RajjeTV” last night, Qasim said that with no work going on at the company, and with income going down to zero, the company had no choice but to decrease salaries, and they aimed to keep employees employees even with a MVR 1000 salary, adding that there has not been a single lay-off.
Qasim explained that, he had gone to banks and private individuals and ‘begged’ for money as no money was made from Villa operations. Qasim has said that now, he has managed to secure a small loan from Bank of Maldives (BML) and a USD 1.6 Million loan from the State Bank of India (SBI).
“When COVID hit, our monthly pay bill reached USD 3.2 Million, Where do we get that money? From who? What do we do when we simply dont have it?” Qasim stated
He said that while Villa does have assets they are willing to sell, there are not many people willing to buy.
