Saeed’s misleading claims on economic progress spark controversy
Minister Saeed could not explain the reason for the decrease in revenue
Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mohamed Saeed at a press conference
Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mohamed Saeed has been caught lying about the progress of the country’s economy.
Saeed made these bold and controversial claims at a press conference held on Tuesday.
The revenue collected by the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) in January this year had decreased by 7.7 percent compared to the revenue collected in January last year. The total revenue collected by MIRA in January 2025 is MVR 3.34 billion. This amount is 7.7 percent lower than the revenue received during the same period last year.
In addition to this, Dhiggaru constituency member and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Ahmed Nazim has recently stressed that the state's revenue has decreased significantly and expressed grave concerns about it.
With this, at Tuesday’s presser, RaajjeTV’s journalist asked when he would resign if proper economic measures are not taken.
Minister Saeed could not explain the reason for the decrease in revenue. He also said that he doesn't know what to say about Nazim's comments.
However, the economic minister claimed that the Maldives' economy is “good”. Instead of shedding light on the reason for the decrease in revenue, the minister focused on projecting a 6.4 percent economic growth for this year and structured his comments along those lines.
While Saeed has said this, senior government officials have also been noting on various platforms that the Maldives' economy is in a fragile state. Therefore, it is a matter of concern that the economic minister’s statements do not align with those of some government officials.
Although the economic minister has claimed that the island nation’s economy is “good”, statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that the state revenue has decreased by 19 percent over the past month. While the country's total revenue decreased, both tax and non-tax revenues have also declined.
Further, the minister repeated his previous statements made on other platforms claiming that import duties have not decreased due to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) reached with China.
Although economic and financial analysts have stated that the decrease in import duty revenue received by the state so far this year was due to the FTA signed with China, the economic minister has continually denied this.
