The islands on long-term lease for agriculture and farming purposes have dropped in its strength to produce revenue for the state, as per the country’s inland revenue authority.
According to Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) the rent fee collections from the said islands had dropped significantly so far in 2019.
The recent statistics from MIRA indicated that in while in June 2019 the revenue collected from the rent on the long-term agricultural leased islands was MVR1.51 million and comparatively up from the MVR1.3 million from the same month in the previous year, the year-to-date figure has dropped down heavily.
In 2018, the half-year figure for revenue collected by state from the mentioned category was at MVR9.3 million whereas in the current year, by the half-year mark the total revenue to date reached only MVR8.8 million.
According to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, state has leased a total of 77 islands for fisheries and agriculture projects out of 50 islands were leased on a long-term basis purely for harvesting crops and other agriculture-based purposes.
The remaining includes 15 islands leased purely for fisheries-based projects and 8 islands which ‘houses’ both fisheries and agriculture based initiatives whereas another three islands have been leased for research projects – the details of which, however were undisclosed.
Comments