Amendments to Export Import Act sent to committee

Proposed amendments by the government to the Export Import Act has been accepted by the parliament and sent to the relevant committee for assessment.

The motion to send the bill to the committee, submitted by Fuvahmulah North MP Mohamed Rafeeg Hassan, was passed with 40 votes in favour. It was voted against by 20 MPs.

The amendments proposed by the government include imposing import duty of 35 percent on permitted animals, and to lift the import duty on items such as chicken, ducks, turkey, and quail.

The bill also proposes the imposition of five percent import duty on sweets and chewing gum, the imposition of fifty percent import duty on alcohol, and the reduction of import duty on garments excluding knitted garments from 25 to 15 percent.

MPs said that the purpose of these amendments is to revise import duty to adjust for changes in the price of US Dollar and world prices of commodities.