Committee completes assessment on revenue bills

The sub-committee created to assess the bills proposing amendments to the Tourism Act and Goods and Services (GST) Act submitted by the government, has completed its assessment on these bills.

The 11-member temporary committee elected last Sunday will present its findings to the relevant Parliamentary Committee, and the bills will be sent to the parliament as decided by the Parliamentary Committee.

This will be followed by the presentation of the committee’s report on the bills to the parliament, and voting on passing the bills on Monday.

Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Kinbidhoo MP Moosa Zameer told Sun Online that several decision have been made regarding the bills by the committee, and work is ongoing to compile the report.

The committee has decided to impose Bed Tax until the end of November 2014, to increase Tourism GST (GST) to 12 percent from November 2014, to extend resort lease period to 50 years and impose a fee of $1.5 million on every island, and to extend the duration for paying this fee to two years.

“The duration has been extended from 18 months to two years following requests from several resorts,” he said.

Bed Tax was discontinued on 31 December 2013, a deadline set by Article 35 (a) of the Tourism Act introduced 14 years ago.

Bed Tax contributes greatly to government revenue. By the end of November 2013, the government collected MVR 853 million as Bed Tax - a 9.5 percent increase compared with the previous year.

Voting on the revenue bills submitted by the government will take place at an extraordinary sitting of the parliament on Monday.