The Maldives Transport and Contracting Company’s board of directors proposed the distribution of MVR32.15 million (US$2 million) as dividends, the highest figure in the state-owned company’s 42-year history.
MTCC earned a record MVR2.47 billion as revenue and an MVR324.16 million operating profit last year, according to its 2022 annual report. But a profit before tax of MVR229.15 million was down 15% from the previous year due to the impact of higher oil and global commodity prices.
The company was awarded 62 infrastructure projects in 2022, during which it completed 42 projects.
The Maldives Ports Limited invited proposals for its Port Community Fund, offering MVR600,000 (US$38,910) a year to support corporate social responsibility projects.
“This will include 8 small-scale projects valued at MVR50,000 each and 2 large-scale projects valued at MVR100,000 each,” MPL explained.
“All CSR projects must align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Maldives Ports Ltd and reflect the company’s commitment to creating a positive impact. MPL intends to provide a funding system for community-based non-profit organisations, non-governmental organisations, charities, councils, clubs, and schools.”
Two proposals have been submitted so far ahead of the deadline of 31 May, state media reported.
The tax authority collected MVR1.86 billion (US$120 million) in April, up 13% compared to the same period last year. But revenue was 11% below forecast as some taxpayers failed to pay before deadlines and the majority of resorts paid the tourism land rent in March despite an extension of the deadline to April, the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority explained.
Reflecting increasing tourist arrivals that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels this year, goods and services tax receipts from the tourism sector of MVR816.8 million – which accounted for 44% of revenue – was up 19% from the same period last year.
Last month, the central bank estimated tourism receipts to have reached US$4.5 billion in 2022, up 28% from US$3.5 billion in 2021. “This was a growth of 41% when compared to the US$3.2 billion registered in 2019,” according to its annual report. The gross value added (GVA) of the tourism sector was estimated “to have registered an annual growth of 22.4% during 2022, following the significant rebound of 152.0% observed in 2021.”
Tourist arrivals surpassed the government’s target of 1.6 million for 2022 and reached a total of 1,675,303 (98% of the 1.7 million tourists arrivals in 2019). “The increase in arrivals primarily reflected the pent-up demand from traditional source markets of Europe as well as key Asian source markets,” the central bank observed.
The annual Food and Hospitality Asia Maldives (FHAM) Exhibition and Global Culinary Challenge kicked off at the Hulhumale’ Central Park.
The three-day event featured 110 stalls by more than 50 local and international companies whilst more than 600 participants from 11 countries competed in 21 categories at the Culinary Challenge. The contestants represented 120 resorts in the Maldives.
FHAM was organised by Dhivehi Expo Services, CDC Events and Travel of Sri Lanka with Lily International as the principle sponsor.
The Bank of Maldives introduced Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for mobile banking logins and announced implementation for internet banking within a week. The extra layer of security verifies that the login is by the registered customer.
All customers were required to login again to activate the new feature. But a “technical issue” prevented customers who forgot passwords or usernames from resetting passwords. The issue was resolved two days after the rollout.
The 2FA is part of the bank’s efforts to combat scams after many customers lost money in fraudulent transactions. BML urged customers never to share personal information and advised regularly changing passwords.
