Male’, Maldives — The Maldives Customs Service has informed that there has been a decline of 40% in the value of goods that were imported during December 2020.
The latest statement revealed by the Customs showed that including the import of fuel, there has been a decline of 40% in the goods that were imported in the last month of 2020. Customs noted that excluding fuel, there is a 39% decline in the imports in December.
Customs reported that out of the total MVR 2.6 billion spent on imports, MVR 469 million was on importing machinery and mechanical appliances, making them the highest imported goods into the Maldives in December 2020.
The second highest imported good category was food items at MVR 638 million. However, this food category does not include pork, alcohol and tobacco that was imported into Maldives. Customs informed that MVR 53 million worth of tobacco, alcohol and pork were imported Maldives during December. MVR 8 million worth cigarettes were imported.
Fuel was the third highest good that was imported to Maldives during December, having imported MVR 243 million worth fuel. These fuel included of marine gas oil (diesel), petrol and aviation gas as well.
On December, Maldives imported 89 million worth plastics and articles thereof; rubber and articles. The incumbent government is currently planning to reduce the amount of plastic imports into the country.
The incumbent government has also recently passed a bill to ban the import of certain single use plastics, deemed as such by the President, in Maldives starting from June 1st of 2021.
