The Parliament of the Maldives has passed the amendment to the Import-Export Act to reduce the import duty on items brought to regional ports, with the exception of items which present health hazards.
The amendment bill to the Import-Export Act was passed with votes from 58 parliamentarians. The bill was passed with 15 amendments brought during the review of the bill by the Whole House Committee of the Parliament.
The amendment to reduce import duty on items brought to regional ports was proposed by Parliamentarian Ahmed Rasheed and endorsed by Parliamentarian Ibrahim Shareef. This amendment was passed with votes from 54 members of the Whole House Committee.
Meanwhile, the committee also passed the amendment not to reduce import duty on items which present health hazards, such as tobacco, energy drinks, alcohol and pork. The committee also passed an amendment which requires the import duty on energy drinks to be raised, and for 3% of the import duty collected from tobacco to be deposited to the Public Health Fund.
The amendment bill to the Import-Export Act was proposed by Parliamentarian Mohamed Visam with the objective of reducing import duty on items brought for the development of certain sectors, as part of efforts to increase production. Upon ratification, the bill would ease the import of items used across different fields of work.