- MIRA rejected MMA Governor Munawwar's claims of lenient resort audits, insisting its enforcement is impartial and data-driven.
- Munawwar noted only 50 of 185 resorts pay corporate tax, and USD 2.1 billion of tourism revenue never enters local banks.
- MIRA cited its risk-based Compliance Risk Management system and small-trader concessions, affirming resorts remain under regular audit.
The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has firmly rejected suggestions of selective enforcement, mounting a robust defence of its oversight of the tourism sector following sharp criticism from MMA Governor Ahmed Munawwar over the country’s chronic foreign exchange shortage.
The tax authority’s pushback came in a formal statement late last night, hours after Governor Munawwar told lawmakers that MIRA was disproportionately targeting small neighbourhood shops whilst failing to properly police luxury resorts.
Addressing Parliament’s Budget Committee, Governor Munawwar pointed to a stark leak in the national economy, revealing that whilst the tourism industry yields roughly USD 5.9 billion a year, only USD 3.8 billion ever enters the domestic banking system.
Describing the shortfall as unacceptable, the governor questioned why only about 50 out of the nation’s 185 operating resorts pay corporate income tax, according to data supplied to the MMA by the tax body itself.
“What does that imply? Either they are genuinely making no profit, or there are underlying irregularities,” Munawwar told MPs. “Doesn’t that warrant an audit? Their books must be audited. MIRA shouldn’t just be knocking on the doors of corner shops. We have to verify whether the accounts in our tourism industry are properly in order.”
Munawwar argued that if all foreign receipts generated across the islands were routed through local financial institutions, the supply would comfortably satisfy national demand, adding that the central bank intends to tighten surveillance considerably next year to enforce repatriation.
Pushing back against the governor’s remarks, MIRA insisted that its enforcement framework is entirely impartial and driven by data, not the size or profile of an enterprise. Under the Tax Administration Act, the agency said, its statutory duty is to execute state tax policies and verify liabilities across every sector without bias or favour.
The tax body explained that entities earmarked for scrutiny are identified through an objective, risk-based Compliance Risk Management system, aligned with its published Compliance Improvement Plan. Far from giving the hospitality sector a free pass, MIRA emphasised that resorts remain under regular audit, noting that the tourism trade continues to contribute the lion’s share of overall public revenue.
Addressing the reference to corner shops, the authority pointed out that the existing tax code includes concessions designed precisely to minimise burdens on small traders, offering simplified bookkeeping rules, audit exemptions, and straightforward filing procedures.
MIRA maintained that while its core strategy centres on stakeholder support and voluntary compliance, firm statutory penalties continue to be enforced against any operator found deliberately dodging tax obligations.
Despite the back-and-forth between the state’s key financial authorities, both institutions broadly acknowledge that untangling the structural distortions in the Maldives’ foreign exchange market will require sustained enforcement rather than overnight fixes.
