The department of immigration has decided to hike fees for issuing new passports from November onward.
In a statement yesterday, the immigration department said the fee for issuing an ordinary 32-page electronic passport would be raised from MVR450 (US$29) to MVR1,000 (US$65).
While the fee for an ordinary 64-page electronic passport would be raised from MVR650 (US$42) to MVR1,500 (US$97), the fee for a non-electronic passport would be raised from MVR300 (US$19) to MVR600 (US$39).
The fees were hiked in response to a sharp increase in the cost of printing, processing and handling passports, the immigration department said.
The department revealed that more than 1,000 passports are lost and needed to be replaced every year.
The fee for replacing lost or damaged passports has also been raised. The fees were last raised in 2007.
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Why is the Maldives still issuing non-electronic passports?
These are no longer acceptable for international travel. Airlines can refuse to board a passenger is they cannot get permission from the country of destination for the passenger to disembark.
Only countries whose citizens are involved in terrorism and corruption would continue issuing passports that cant be tracked electronically.