MMA reminds to surrender dollar earnings before Wednesday

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has today reminded all relevant parties to surrender foreign currency earnings before Wednesday, in accordance with the amendments made to the Foreign Currency Act. In a press release, the MMA stated that under Section 10 of the Foreign Currency Act, a portion of foreign currency earnings received each calendar month must be surrendered before the 28th of the following month. The authority has reminded all entities subject to the law to comply with this requirement. Furthermore, the MMA said that the names of parties who fail to fulfill the surrender obligation by the deadline will be disclosed in accordance with the procedures established by the authority. With the amendment to the Foreign Currency Act, resorts are now required to surrender 40 percent of their foreign currency earnings to banks in the Maldives each month. This amendment came into effect on the 1st of last month. Previously, under the Foreign Currency Act, resorts were surrendering only 10 percent of their earnings to banks, according to the government. For guesthouse operators, there has been no change to the required amount; they must surrender either USD 25 per tourist or 20 percent of total earnings, as stipulated in the original law.