Cabinet has today decided that all fees and taxes payable to the government must be paid in local currency, in a bid to overcome the dollar shortage currently being experienced in the country.
The decision comes after President’s official visit to Seychelles, following which President Mohamed Nasheed met with the press and shared advice from the Seychelles Finance Ministry and Central Bank Governor to insist on the use of local currency as legal tender.
Speaking to the press, Nasheed said he met with the Governor of Seychelles Central Bank and Finance Ministry’s Principal Secretary for Finance and Trade Ahmed Afif.
‘’I had a long discussion with Mr Afif and Governor of Seychelles over this issue,’’ President Nasheed said. ‘’We are on the right path now, we can reform our economy better than Seychelles.’’
Nasheed said Afif continuously told him to use local currency as the legal tender to overcome the dollar shortage.
‘’They advised us to use local currency as the lead currency, so for example all taxes have to paid in Maldivian rufiya.’’
Nasheed explained that if the Maldivian rufiya was used as the lead currency, all resorts and individuals would have to change dollars into Maldivian ruffiya to pay the taxes and fees to the government.
‘’To get Maldivian ruffiya they will have to go to the banks, which will increase the amount of dollars that the banks will have,’’ Nasheed added.
The President also noted that the inflation rate of Maldives was low compared to neighboring countries.
‘’I did check the price of diesel and rice and flour, it is still cheaper in the Maldives,’’ he said.
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What if the resort owners and other personnel who gets their income in dollars doesn't go to the bank to convert?
Mr president. first you appointed ali shiyam and your financial advisor and ahmed mausoom as your financial secretary. this could not resolve the dollar crisis and you appointed ahmed inaz as your finance minister. then you removed asad from the post of state minister for finance. this also could not solve the dollar crisis. then you tried implementing the IMF reforms. this also could not solve the dollar crisis. you also put a policeman behind every dollar. but some policemen like commissioner faseeh are too large and not fit enough to chase a light and quick thing as a dollar. so now you have gone to seychelles and consulted mr ahmed afif. i am very happy that you now realise that we are on the right path now and we can reform our economy. my advise to you is to make mr ahmed afif our finance minister. there is no rule in the constitution which forbids mr afeef from being the finance minister of both maldives and seychelles. after all, he has maldivian blood running through his veins.
mr ahmed afif is the son of abdulla afeef didi, the great leader of Suvadib Republic from Addu. thus mr ahmed afif is by default a maldivian and qualified to be our finance minister. my advice is to exchange him with home minister hassan afif so seychelles also gets an afif and we get the more qualified afif.
its not a bad idea, i am sure it will work well.
no matter where the resorts will get their rufiya from, at least the demand on Rufiya will be in the open market and more dollars will be circulated for sure. I am confident this will be good for the economy and should be implemented with all the taxes the government is charging. well well done.
Saabahey Nasheed! You are a real Maldivian loving President. Keep it up! No doubt, this time we will see that our Rufiyaa has strength unlike Governor Maumoon's time
Fair play to HEP - doing something is better than doing nothing! I am sure the former president's half brother will do his best to derail any recovery.
yes the rufiyaa did really badly under gayyoom's day. i mean it was at 12.85 when he stepped down (now its 15,42 and at the black market, reaching 20)...
also economy was very bad under gayyoom. despite tsunami and sars and many other challengers maldivians did not face today's hardships..
of course anni and mdp brought democracy and "anneh (or anni) dhivehi rajje" and all goods things (like broken economy, no dollars, high prices, no food for the masses, whilst political appointees with fat salaries appointed on a daily basis, mostly druggies or porn-stars or people like that..
and now releasing 400 inmates (serious offenders) to Male; and monaza (brilliant) naeem saying government jobs available for all of them! what a superb government hehe,.
as a friend (who ironically worked his ass off for the so-called "change" of government), recently said, "aifoaraa hisaabuga othee hama ekani elifa oih echeh dho...." sad but true hehe