Foreign currency revenue performing strongly with USD 63m earning in March

The revenue earned by the state in terms of foreign currency, namely US dollars stood at USD 63.73 million last March. 

This is a 26.5 percent increase when compared with the USD 41.7 million earned in February. Statistics publicized by Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) show that the total state revenue last month stood at MVR 1.33 billion. This is inclusive of the dollar income.

MIRA statistics also showed that a large proportion of the USD income into the Maldives was through the tourism industry, more specifically TGST. 49 percent of the dollar revenue was from TGST which is a total of USD 31.8 million. 34.4 percent or USD 21.9 million was from tourism land lease payments. 

MIRA said that the strong performance of the dollar revenue was due to the increased income from tourism land leases. MIRA also estimated that the increase was contributed to by the deferment of tourism land rents introduced by the government to assist such businesses hit hard by the effects of the pandemic. 

The next biggest proportion of the currency revenue was from Green Taxes, bringing in a total of USD 4.5 million. Airport Development Fees also contributed a total of USD 2.1 million. 

MIRA stated that the actual revenue earned in March had increased by 28.4 percent when compared to previous projections.