State collected MVR 252 million as import duty in July, which is a 20% increase compared to the MVR 210 million collected in the same period in 2016, according to the latest Statistics released by Maldives Customs Services.
The statistics showed that imports to Maldives increased by 24% to MVR 3.1 billion in July, which is a 24% increase in comparison to the MVR 2.5 billion worth of imports to Maldives in July 2016. Looking at countries from which most imports were made as per the statistics, 15% was from Singapore, 14% from China and UAE, 13% from India and 7% from Malaysia.
Customs statistics also showed that exports from Maldives also increased in July by 29% compared to the same period in 2016. In 2016, MVR 157 million worth of goods were exported, while goods worth MVR 202 million were exported by July 2016.
Most exports from the country in July included fish products, which is 43% of total exports. The most fish exports were made to Thailand, according to the customs statistics.