New expat system to generate MVR 927 mil revenue

The Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusan has said that with the implementation of the new expat system, Maldives government will generate an income of MVR 927 million per annum.

The minister made the statement during Thursday’s press conference, where he said the system currently features 221,231 active work permit applications.

“These are all not currently in the Maldives, these are simply the active work permits,” he said, and noted that regular payments are made to only 50% of these applications, which is an estimated MVR 685 million income per annum to the state.

With only 50% of the employers regularly paying for work permits, the current system does not operate efficiently.

“Meaning the current system is unable to send individual notifications to the parties with breaches or automatically update blacklisted [employers]. Development of the system like this would take time, but we require imminent solution for this,” he said.

With additional setups the system can be upgraded to the most preferred state including biometric identification, acquire 10 fingerprints from expatriates, and face recognition.

While noting the income generated from the system is state revenue, Ihusan said the server capacity will be increased to ensure the system is accessible across the Maldives.

“Meaning, the state is not obligated to pay to the party that fails to pay regularly. We are making payments once the money received to the state is realized,” the minister added.

Minister Ihusan estimated the new system can be rolled out by February next year, which is poised to increase regular payers from 50% to 90%, which would increase the state’s income from MVR 685 million to MVR 927 million annually.