Male: The Maldives government has announced that the Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) revenue collection in March has dipped by 26.9 percent in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak

The statistics published by the authority said the state collected MVR 1.1 billion as tax last month. This is a 26.9 percent decline compared to the same period last year. The amount is also 20.3 percent lower than the tax revenue estimated to be received in March.

MIRA said one of the reasons for the decline in collected revenue is due to the government offices being closed as a precautionary measure against COVID-19. The payments due by the deadline were not collected due to the pandemic, said MIRA.

Also, an 11.1 percent decline in tourist arrivals in February is also a contributing factor, the authority said.

A large part of the revenue collected by MIRA last month, 57.3 percent came from GST payments. This is equivalent to MVR 637.67 million. The second-largest revenue was generated as tourism land rent, amounting to MVR 131.64 million. This is 11.8 percent of the total revenue collected in March.

While MVR 81.38 million was collected as BPT, MVR 74.04 million was collected as Green Tax. A further MVR 59.17 million was collected as Airport Development Fee, and other taxes and fees contributed MVR 128.68 million. A US dollar revenue of 49.2 million is also included in the revenue collected last month.

Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer has stated that the state budget will suffer a deficit of MVR 12 billion during the current fiscal year.

The Maldivian tourism was flourishing before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. The archipelago has now suspended issuing visas on arrival, which has effectively stopped the arrival of tourists. Most resorts are not operational, and many are being used to quarantine Maldivians arriving from abroad.

So far 20 cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the Maldives.