News Desk
Unpaid resort rent and unpaid fines owed to the state have topped $90 million, Tourism Minister Mohamed Ameen confirmed, as the government released a new regulation charging a $100,000 fee to extend resort construction deadlines.
Speaking to reporters, Minister Ameen said that 94 percent of resort operators across the country abide by regulations and regularly pay their lease fees and taxes to the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA). However, a small minority of operators have failed to clear their bills, racking up huge unpaid debts over the years.
“This is a massive sum, and some of these parties have not complied since 2013,” Minister Ameen said. “This is a long-standing issue that cannot be fixed overnight.”
The minister said the government is working on Cabinet instructions to recover the missing funds. Authorities have put a structured framework in place to negotiate with defaulting operators and collect the outstanding money, with formal action set to follow if developers miss agreed payment timelines.
Coinciding with the briefing, the Tourism Ministry published a new regulation governing construction period extensions, resort redevelopments, and lease deferrals. Under the new rules, developers who fail to finish and open their resorts within their granted grace periods can obtain a construction extension by paying a $100,000 fee to the state.
Developers must pay the $100,000 fee within one month of receiving conditional approval, or the extension will be revoked. The maximum extension allowed is one year for islands or land plots and two years for lagoon developments, with a minimum extension of one month.
To qualify for an extension, developers must have completed at least 50 percent of the resort’s construction by the end of the original grace period, which the ministry will verify on-site. If developers fail to clear their dues during the extended period, the ministry holds full authority to enforce penalties under the lease agreement or cancel the contract entirely.
