MAYA: Industry at standstill with new rules for tourist vessels

Maldives Association for Yacht Agents (MAYA) said today that after the recent amendment to the laws about tourist vessels that visit Maldives, the whole industry has come to a standstill.

Expressing his concerns with Sun, president of MAYA, Mohamed Nasheed, said that the recent amendments to the laws regarding visiting tourist vessels was made without consulting experienced people in the field and without getting sufficient information about the subject.

He further said that with the new amendment, the revenue the government receives from visiting tourist vessels will decline.

“A huge revenue that the government received in the past has stopped. While the new regulation has been made, government organizations are not ready,” Nasheed said.

Noting that government organizations are not ready for this, he said that some information that is not available from government organizations are required on the forms that need to be submitted due to the new regulations.

He noted that the one thing that is most difficult is that vessels have to submit the inward clearance card, which is received upon docking in the harbour, before arrival. He said that as it stands it is not probable to happen.

“The reason is that no matter how hard you try, you will not get a document that is issued after the vessel arrives in Male', before it arrives there," he said.

He further said that super yachts have always worked by selling destinations to tourists. So having them come to Maldives and remain docked in the city for a long time would give a very 'negative image' of the country, he said.

With the new rules, vessels now have to pay taxes to the government if they stay in Maldives for more than seven days.

Speaking regarding this, Nasheed said passenger lines would normally stay in Maldives for three days. The maximum stay is five days, he said.

There will be very few passenger lines waiting for seven days, he said, adding that only two vessels have waited that long in the past five years.

Nasheed said the state gets a huge benefit from the previous rule in the form of tax. However, if the tax is not levied, the government will not get the benefit, he said.

He further said that although the new rules do this, the MIRA rules state that green tax and all other ports and transport payments must be paid after the vehicle has been in Maldives for 12 hours. Therefore, the MIRA rules also conflict with the new tourist vessel rules, he said.

Nasheed said the new rules have come to a deadlock the entire industry. There are such serious problems in the rules and the ministry has not yet noticed these issues, he said.

Responding to the government's claim that such vessels do not benefit the economy and do not pay taxes, Nasheed said the government earns a huge income from such vessels.

These issues have been submitted to the Parliament and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, but none of them have been considered when the new rules were drafted, he said.

Nasheed said the professionals of the industry doesn’t think it’s the best way to follow this rule at the start of the season.

Nasheed said these concerns are already being raised with the President's Office, the Economic Committee of Parliament, the Trade Ministry, the Transport Ministry and the Tourism Ministry.

"I requested again last night that these permits be granted in accordance with the old rules until a mechanism is in place to operate the new rules," he said.

He said if there is no mechanism to operate the new rules in this way, it will be very difficult in the coming season. If the season ends like this, there will be fewer vessels coming to Maldives next season, he said.

Earlier, the government had increased the pilotage fee for vessels arriving in Maldives. Some cruise lines scheduled to arrive in Maldives were canceled as a result. The government later reduced the fees.