Male’, Maldives – Maldives Inland Revenue Authority has reported that the country’s dollar income has dropped by 78 percent in November compared to 2019 November.
Even though a decent number of tourists have been arriving to Maldives since border reopening, the dollar income received for November is still lower than the previous year.
According to the statistics revealed by Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), while Maldives received an income of USD 51 million in November 2019, only USD 11 million was received in November 2020. Hence, this is a reduction of 78 percent in the dollar income received this November compared to November 2019. This reduction is all the more significant as November is a popular season for tourism.
The statistics further state that while Maldives received USD 8 million as Tourism TGST last month, USD 27 million was received in November of 2019. This is also a reduction of 68 percent in the TGST income. Im addition to this the GreenTax of 3 dollars and 6 dollars collected per head has also decreased from USD 4 million in November 2019 to USD 1 million in November 2020.
Furthermore, the Airport Service Charge collected has also decreased from USD 4 million in November 2019 to USD 457,467 in November 2020. A significant reduction has been noted in the Airport Development Fee as well since USD 4 million collected in November 2019 has decreased to USD 463,323 in November 2020.
The Maldivian borders reopened on July 15th after a brief period in closure due to Covid-19. The Maldives tourism industry is slowly recovering from the pandemic as the number of tourists continue to increase. Maldives recently celebrated the arrival of it’s 100,000th tourist since border reopening. In addition to this, the expected target for the year has also been achieved with over 500,000 tourist arrivals for the year. The Tourism Ministry expects an additional 40,000 tourists before new year’s eve as numerous international airlines have started their travels to Maldives.
