News Desk
Mohamed Khaeel has resigned from his post as President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s Special Advisor on Tourism, stepping down just hours after the People’s Majlis passed controversial foreign exchange legislation forcing resorts to hand over 40 percent of their dollar revenue to local banks.
Khaleel’s abrupt exit comes amid mounting pushback from top resort operators and industry leaders over the sweeping changes. His departure follows another high-profile exit in the sector, coming shortly after Ibrahim Shiuree resigned as Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Visit Maldives Corporation.
The revised bill—tabled on behalf of the government by PNC MP Abdulla Sattar Mohamed—originally proposed replacing a mandatory $500 per-tourist conversion rule with a requirement for resorts to surrender 20 percent of their monthly foreign exchange income. However, the committee pulled the bill back for last-minute revisions, doubling the mandatory surrender rate to 40 percent before pushing it through the floor.
The changes mirror hardline currency measures announced by Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Ahmed Munawwar to crack down on the parallel market. The legislation strictly bans publishing black-market dollar exchange rates and penalizes trading above official central bank limits.
Industry insiders say the parliamentary committee rammed the bill through without proper scrutiny, failing to even summon the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) during committee reviews.
In a scathing statement, MATI revealed that government ministers and senior officials summoned its executive board to the President’s Office just yesterday. Officials accused certain resort operators of directly fueling black-market dollar trading and driving up rates—allegations MATI flatly rejected.
“We clearly stated that we have zero knowledge of any such activity,” MATI said, arguing that imposing blanket policies across the entire sector over unproven allegations against individual operators is unfair and destructive. “Blaming resort operators for rising black-market rates is neither accurate nor fair.”
