Travel fee of USD 25; duty on energy drinks, cigarettes to go up;

Government has proposed increasing import duty on cigarettes and energy drinks, and introducing a travel fee of USD 25 from each passenger who travels abroad from Maldives.

Increasing import duty on products harmful to health is a component of the initiatives to achieve the projected State income of MVR 21.9 billion in 2017.

The MVR 26 billion projected State budget for 2017, which was submitted to People’s Majlis this Tuesday morning by Minister of Finance and Treasury, Ahmed Munawwar is a surplus budget by MVR 1.1 billion.

It’s a significant decision made by the government after years of projected deficit budgets.

Government expects to generate MVR 200 million by increasing the import duty on cigarettes, and MVR 9 million by increasing the import duty on energy drinks.

Current import duty per cigarette stands at MVR 1.25, government has proposed increasing it

to MVR 1.75. It has been proposed that import duty on energy drinks be increased from MVR 15 percent to MVR 20.

Government expects to generate an income of MVR 565.8 million by charging the fee of USD 25 from each passenger who travels out of Maldives.

Additional income generators include an expected MVR 12 million from sale of taxi permits, an expected MVR 566 million from airport development charge, MVR 500 million in acquisition fees from Special Economic Zones, and MVR 500 million from lease of State property.

64.1 percent of the income is expected to come from tax, 22 percent from non-tax income, and 9.3 percent from proposed income generating initiatives.