The state-owned Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has settled US$7.5 (MVR115 million) in outstanding jet fuel charges.
The payments, owed to the State Trading Organisation (STO), were left outstanding from before the government opted last November to void a contract with Infrastructure group GMR to manage and develop Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).
A deadline for payment of the bills had reportedly been set by the STO for December 2012, but was delayed after Singapore’s Supreme Court overturned an injunction blocking the Maldivian government from voiding its sovereign agreement with GMR.
STO Managing Director Managing Director Shahid Ali has said that after the state-owned MACL took over management of the site from GMR late last year, it also took on the developer’s existing contracts and therefore had been required to pay the outstanding fuel charges, local Newspaper Haveeru reported.
MACL is requested to pay a further US$2.5 million (MVR38.3 million) in unpaid fuel bills.
According to local media, GMR had signed a US$150 million (MVR2.3 billion) jet fuel supply deal in March last year that is set to expire in April 2013.
(0)Dislikes
(0)