Efforts by the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) to recover money owed to the state resulted in the collection of USD 32.2 million last month alone, MIRA has revealed.
This accounted for 3.01 percent of the authority’s total revenue collected during the month.
According to figures published by MIRA, the authority collected a total of USD 157.0 million in revenue last month. This was 14 percent higher than the revenue collected during the same period last year, and 24 percent higher than the amount MIRA had forecast to collect for the month.
GST accounted for the largest share of MIRA’s revenue last month, generating USD 81.1 million. The second-largest source of revenue was withholding tax, which brought in USD 31.8 million. In addition, USD 13.0 million was collected as green tax, USD 9.47 million as airport development fees, USD 9.34 million as departure tax, and USD 5.0 million as work permit fees.
MIRA’s figures show that 14.8 percent of the revenue collected by the authority last month came from payments made for previous periods. Meanwhile, 3.01 percent of the revenue was generated through efforts to recover outstanding payments, according to the authority.
As part of its efforts to recover outstanding payments, MIRA collected a total of USD 32.2 million last month. This included USD 19.6 million recovered through notices, USD 5.0 million through dues clearances, and USD 6.81 million under instalment agreements.
MIRA also recovered USD 454,000 through telephone calls reminding taxpayers to make their payments, USD 57,700 under its action policy, and a further USD 298,000 by freezing bank accounts.