Leakage of MVR 5 bn for expat salaries in 2015

It has come to light that Maldivian economy, which is heavily reliant on services provided by expatriates, had a leakage of MVR 5 billion in salaries to expatriate workers.

Statistics released by central bank – Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) – shows that expatriate workers sent out USD 355 million – which amounts to MVR 5.47 billion – to their native countries in 2015.

Latest census shows that there are over 135,000 expatriates working in Maldives – a country which has a local population of approximately 400,000 people.

The government has now made the controversial decision to take a fee of three percent from the money expatriates send back to their countries.

Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed said in an earlier interview that 80 percent of expatriate workers in the country earn less than USD 250 per month. And that a three percent fee was a very small amount.

It has been estimated that State would earn MVR 56 million from the fee, this year.