Month: April 2011

Convicted criminals brought before judges on fresh charges

A person previously sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking has appeared before the criminal court charged with vandalising a shop and assaulting the shopkeeper, the Criminal Court has said in a statement.

The Criminal Court in a statement said that Ismail Waheed of Galolhu Sundance had been handed to the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) to implement the verdict of life imprisonment, and was under the impression he was behind bars until he was brought before the court by police on fresh charges.

Waheed was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to life imprisonment after 25 packets of illegal drugs were discovered on him.

The Criminal Court said police had been ordered to keep Waheed in custody and hand him over to the DPRS within 15 days.

DPRS Director General Mohamed Rasheed told local media that Waheed escaped prison when he was brought Male’ for medical treatment, and had been at large as a fugitive.

According to Rasheed, Waheed’s family requested he be taken abroad for medical treatment and he was brought to Male’ prior to the journey.

On March 18 police brought a person to the Criminal Court who had previously been sentenced to 45 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of theft, objection to order and three drug related charges, said the Criminal Court.

A second person was also brought before the court who had been sentenced 10 times on different charges and was supposed to be serving 27 years imprisonment, after he was found guilty of five robbery cases, two cases of objection to order, two cases of driving without a license and one case of possession and use of drugs.

”The court’s documents show that those two persons were handed over to the concerned authorities to implement the verdict,” the court said at the time. ”But Ttey were brought before the judges on March 18 on charges of robbery after being arrested during a police special operation to curb violence in Male’.”

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Focus on “direct revenue” needed as state earnings increase, says Razee

The country’s Economic Development Minister has called for a greater focus on introducing new “direct revenue” streams like taxation to the country to try and balance national income even as the government reports an increase in income.

Mahmood Razee said he believed that increased government earnings between January and March 2011 should be seen as an encouraging development in the country for both public and private finance, with initiatives like the tourism Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced in January expected to be rolled out across other national industries.

However, he stressed that more cash generating measures would be needed by the state to balance the country’s books.

The claims were made as the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) recorded a 59 percent increase in government first quarter income on the back of new initiatives like the tourism GST.

The Maldives has come under huge pressure in recent years from financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to try and reduce extensive state spending, resulting in a large deficit between income and expenditure that the government’s Finance Ministry have claimed to be trying to address.

While preliminary figures had pegged the 2010 fiscal deficit at 17.75 percent, “financing information points to a deficit of around 20-21 percent of GDP”, down from 29 percent in 2009, the IMF has reported.

Razee claimed that the increases in government income was a step towards more balanced expenditure as the MIRA revealed that Rf947m was generated during the first quarter of 2011. These earnings were up by 21 percent on predicted incomes for the year and 59 percent over revenues taken during the same period in 2010. However, earnings from the tourism GST introduced from January 2011 onwards were not in place back in 2010.

Tax revenue over the quarter rose by 81 percent, aided mainly by the tourism GST, which generated an estimated Rf351m in February and March alone, up one percent on expected earnings, according to the MIRA.

Of these tax earnings, the financial report stated that Rf82m had been collected in the local currency, while the remaining Rf864m was collected in US dollars (US$67m).

The MIRA report added that government earnings from initiatives such as the switch of a tourism lease rent to a tourism land rent had seen non-tax revenue increase by 46 percent over the period, despite a 28 percent decline in royalties after recent amendments to the Fisheries Sector.

“With the change from tourism lease rent to tourism land rent, the revenue from [this amendment] has increased by 7 percent,” the report stated. “Additional revenue of Rf 146m has been received during this quarter from Resort Lease Period Extension following to the second amendment made to the Tourism Act.”

More Work

According to Razee, despite the increased revenue, more sources of income, particularly in terms of foreign currency, were needed to offset budgetary concerns.  This apparent need comes in light of a lack of US dollars being made available through Maldivian banks that this month saw a long standing Rf12.85 peg on the exchange rate controversially being amended within 20 percent above or below the figure.

“The solution is to look to more direct forms of revenue like the general GST, though there is still some way to go with work in trying to balance revenue with the expenditure side,” he said. “Additionally, when we look to taking [state] loans they will need to be able to build greater productivity and more investment into the economy.”

With the Finance Ministry aiming to introduce a general GST system beyond services and goods provided to holidaymakers, Razee believed that government’s recent experience with taxing tourism income had helped bring a much great understanding of the true state of the country’s finances.

“Obviously with the GST in place, we understand much better the exact tourism receipts being generated,” he said. “Without them, it was much harder to fully understand the revenues being generated.

Razee claimed that the implementation of the general GST tax would also require the private sector to be more “professional” in their accounting, in theory ensuring wider industry benefits in the long-term.

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Protest march held in Male’ over sex crime fears

A protest march jointly organised by the Health Ministry and local NGOs took place down the main street of Male’ yesterday amidst heightened concerns regarding the prevalence of sexual violence against women, minors and persons with special needs.

Police revealed last week that 27 sexual violence cases were reported in the past three weeks, including 16 cases of child sexual abuse.

Sun Online reports that participants held up placards calling on the authorities to bring sex crimes perpetrators to justice as they marched down Majeedee Magu towards the capital’s artificial beach area. The placards carried slogans such as “stop hiding secrets of criminals” and “zero tolerance for child abuse”.

Addressing participants at the artificial beach, Health Minister Dr Aminath Jameel urged the public not to refrain from reporting incidents of sexual violence against women and children.

Members of NGOs Care Society, Society of Hope for Women, Society of Women against Drugs (SWAD), JCI and the Red Crescent were joined at the march by MPs Imthiyaz Fahmy of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Ahmed Nihan and Dr Afrashim Ali of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) as well as film stars and senior officials of the former government.

Gender Department officials meanwhile explained that the turnout was lower than expected as the event was originally planned for Friday, but had to be cancelled at the last moment due to bad weather.

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Police confirm Hulhumale’ collision death

Police have confirmed the death a 29-year old man yesterday after a motor bike he was riding reportedly collided with a pick-up truck on the island of Hulhumale’.

Police told Minivan News that the man, identified as Abdulla Saeed, died late last night after a bike he was riding along with a fellow passenger reportedly collided with a truck on the island’s main street.

Police officials told Minivan News that they were currently not sure of the speed either of the vehicles were travelling at when they collided, but claimed that no one else involved in the incident was thought to have sustained serious injuries.

Following the collision, police said that Saeed was taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Male’.

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Public outrage in Addu prompts “Stop Abuse” vehicle rally

A vehicle rally with the slogan “Stop Abuse” took place in Addu City yesterday in the wake of public shock and outrage over the brutal rape of a 74 year-old woman in Hithadhoo last week.

Haveeru reports that local NGOs, businesses and state enterprises participated in the rally across the interconnected islands of the southernmost Seenu Atoll. While Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam along with some MPs also took part, Haveeru notes that public participation was low.

According to the Child Protection Services Centre in Hithadhoo, 237 cases of child abuse and 58 cases of domestic violence have been reported since the centre was established.

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Government income must be doubled, says President

Government income has to be doubled to create fiscal space for increased capital expenditure and investment for development opportunities, President Mohamed Nasheed said in his radio address yesterday.

Speaking on the cabinet decision last week to incentivise voluntary redundancy in the civil service, President Nasheed reiterated that facilitating more attractive and higher paying employment opportunities for civil servants and government employees remains “a major goal for the government.”

“Development opportunities are going to be very limited if a large part of state revenue is recurrent expenditure,” he said. “We have to increase capital expenditure. The best way is to exponentially increase government income.”

While revenue was increasing year by year, Nasheed continued, current levels of annual income have to be “doubled” to make fiscal space for capital investments.

“It will take time for the state to reach that level,” he added. “It is necessary for the government to maintain recurrent expenditure at a certain level to reach [the goal]…The government’s purpose, or objective, is to find ways for employees to improve their standard of living.”

Under the scheme launched by cabinet on Tuesday, civil servants and government employees will be eligible for one of four retirement incentive packages: no assistance, a one time payment of Rf150,000 (US$11,700), a payment of Rf150,000 and priority in the small and medium enterprises loan scheme (for those 18-50 years of age), or a lump sum of Rf 200,000 (US$15,600) and priority in government training and scholarship programmes (for those 18-40 years of age).

Government employees above the age of 55 who retire voluntarily will be given the same benefits as those released by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) at the mandatory retirement age of 65.

The deadline to apply for the programme with the Finance Ministry is May 31, 2011.

Austerity battles

In August 2009, the government’s decision to implement austerity measures to alleviate the crippling budget deficit – including unpopular pay cuts of up to 15 percent for civil servants – was met with protests and fierce resistance from opposition parties and the CSC.

President Nasheed announced at the time that the government planned to halve the 32,000-strong civil service by 2011 through redundancies and transfer of employees to corporations.

While the President stated that the civil service should be composed of no more than 18,000 well-paid and qualified staff, CSC Chair Mohamed Fahmy told Minivan News last week that the commission currently has 19,000 permanent staff.

At the height of a protracted legal dispute between the CSC and government last year, the parliament-appointed independent commission was accused of attempting to topple the government and “plunge the Maldives into chaos.”

International organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meanwhile insist that reckless expansionary fiscal policies from 2004 onward that saw doubling expenditure on salaries between 2007-2009 crippled the economy.

“The Maldives faces the most challenging macroeconomic situation of all democratic transitions that have occurred since 1956,” read a World Bank report in March 2010.

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MMA Governor meets Finance Minister to discuss dollar shortage

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Fazeel Najeeb met Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz last week to discuss the policy measures taken to alleviate the dollar shortage and determine what additional efforts could be undertaken to resolve the problem.

According to an MMA press statement on Thursday, Najeeb and Inaz agreed that given the continuing scarcity of dollars, “the problem of partiality by some to transactions with dollars instead of rufiyaa is tied to the dollar shortage.”

“It was therefore decided to go forward by consulting the business community about the issue,” it adds.

Deputy Governor Aishath Zahira, State Minister Ahmed Naseer and MMA technical staff also participated in the meeting.

Local media meanwhile reported a sharp rise in the wholesale prices of a number of commodities last week, ranging from powdered milk to areca nuts. Following the government’s decision earlier this month to replace the fixed exchanged rate with a managed float of the rufiya within a band of 20 percent of the 12.85 peg, newly-appointed Finance Minister Inaz told press that he expected the economy to stabilise within three months.

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Police arrest three suspects in burglary case

Police arrested three men Thursday on suspicion of stealing a safe with over Rf800,000 (US$62,250) in cash and jewellery from a house in Maafanu ward of Male’.

Haveeru reports that the third suspect, Ahmed Muaz, municipality register number 8499, was found Thursday night hiding in his girlfriend’s bathroom.

A police media official said that officers at the scene broke the bathroom door after Muaz refused to come out.

Muaz was arrested in connection with the burglary of a safe containing US$38,000 and Rf30,000 (US$2,330) in cash along with expensive watches and jewellery. The safe was stolen from the third floor of a Maafanu residence.

Jaufar Mohamed, 29, M. Medhuriya, and Ahmed Riyaz, 29, M. Hasthy, were meanwhile taken into custody before police issued a public search notice for Muaz.

Police revealed that one of the suspects, Jaufar Mohamed, had previously been sentenced to jail and that efforts were underway to determine how or why he was released.

Meanwhile the Criminal Court revealed that a man brought before the court yesterday for assaulting a shop owner after threatening to kill him had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Court records showed that Ismail Waheed, G. Sundance, had been convicted for possession of 25 packets of drugs.

The court ordered police to keep the repeat offender in custody for 15 days and to hand him over to the penitentiary department within that period.

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MMA launches dollar reference at Rf 14.75

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has published a dollar reference exchange rate of Rf 14.75, in an effort to give an approximate determination of the value of the currency.

Currency exchangers are permitted to sell dollars within a 20 percent band of the pegged rate of Rf 12.85, after the government launched a managed float of the rufiya earlier this month. Rf 14.75 is roughly the value of exchange on the black market prior to the managed float.

Banks are required to submit their daily rates to the MMA.

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