India’s decision to exempt fuel exports to the Maldives from key duties could lower the cost of sourcing petroleum products from India, although the immediate impact may be limited by the Maldives’ existing dependence on other fuel suppliers.
The Maldives has been added to India’s list of countries exempt from the Special Additional Excise Duty and the Road and Infrastructure Cess on fuel exports. Mauritius was also included under the changes, expanding a concession previously available to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The amendment was published in the Gazette of India and took effect following the changes made on 30 June. The waiver applies to petroleum products exported by Indian public sector oil companies.
The concession covers duties applied to petrol and diesel exports. Recent rates cited in Indian export duty revisions include INR 4 per litre for petrol and INR 8.5 per litre for diesel under the Special Additional Excise Duty framework.
For the Maldives, the exemption may reduce expenditure if fuel is imported from India, particularly at a time when global energy markets remain exposed to geopolitical risk and trade disruptions linked to tensions in the Middle East.
However, India is not currently the Maldives’ main source of fuel imports. The country sources much of its fuel from Oman, with additional supplies from markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
The duty concession is therefore likely to be more significant as a supply option and contingency measure than as an immediate shift in the Maldives’ fuel import structure. It follows discussions between Maldivian and Indian officials on energy sourcing, as the Maldives continues to assess alternative supply channels in response to external market pressures.
