The People’s Majlis’ failure to extend the country’s tourism bed tax before recess will result in losses of MVR100 million a month, the Finance Minister is reported to have told local media.
As of the start of 2014, the tourism bed tax taken under the Maldives Tourism Act of 1999 will be discontinued because of a deadline added to the act during its second amendment in 2010.
Article 35 – D of the amended act states that within three years of taking TGST (Tourism General Services Tax), the US$8 tourism bed tax per person per night shall be discontinued.
As the TGST was introduced with the year 2011, the current deadline came to pass at 12am this morning.
Quoting the Deputy Commissioner General of Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) Hassan Zareer ‘Haveeru‘ has reported that this will result in a reduction of MVR1 billion – or ten percent of annual state revenue. He said the issue had been brought to the government’s attention. Minister of Finance Abdulla Jihad was quoted as saying that this change would incur a loss of approximately MVR100 million per month from the state cash flow.
On 9 December 2013 MP Abdul Aziz Jamal Abubakr, proposed an amendment to the act – on behalf of the government – extending the deadline for another year. However, it was not passed when the Majlis went to recess with the final sitting of the third session on 30 December 2013. The next session of the Majlis will begin on 1 March 2014.
MIRA statistics reveal that from January – November 2013 the tourism tax accounted for 9.6% (MVR787,340,577) of the total revenue collected by the authority. Within the same period tourism land rents contributed 9.8%, and TGST 27.3% of the total revenue.
On 29 December the Majlis passed a MVR17.95 billion (US$1.16 billion) national budget, despite concerns from the public and various organisations. The central bank Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) warned that if proposed revenue raising measures in it were not implemented, the budget could not cater for even the recurrent expenditure. The authority anticipates that the resulting budget deficit for 2014 could potentially increase from MVR886.6 million to 4.4 billion (11% of GDP).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also proposed the implementation of a number of measures to raise revenue and reduce spending.
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