Controversial amendment against garage document requirement sent back to committee

Malé road traffic | Photo: Corporate Maldives

Malé, Maldives – The committee report regarding the removal of the clause requiring a garage placement document for vehicle registrations in the Maldives has been sent back to committee for investigation.

The amendment to the Land Transport Act (no. 5/2009), was sponsored by Mohamed Nasheed Abdulla, MP for Nolhivaram. MP Nasheed said that the reason for this amendment is corruption in the system due to the requirement for more than two wheeled vehicles to have a garage placement document in order to register the vehicle.

He said that this has lead to a system of exploitation using the “garage fee” where private parties charge exponential amounts to register vehicles to garages, leading to multiple vehicles being registered per garage over capacity.

MP Nasheed proposed removing the requirement completely in order to stop the exploitation.

However, in today’s hearing MP Eva Abdulla of Galholhu Uthuru Constituency said that the solution for exploitation of the garage document requirement system is not to remove the requirement completely, adding that there should be a better solution.

The amendment was thereby voted to be sent back to the Committee on National Development And Heritage with 68 votes.

The garage document requirement for vehicle registration is set in place to control the vehicle import into the country and removal of the requirement will lead to further vehicle overcrowding, said MP Eva.

Garage document related systematic corruption is an unmonitored issue prevalent in the greater Malé area.