The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) had garnered over MVR 1 billion in February, significantly more than its projected amount.

The taxation authority said that the income for February was exactly 15.2 percent more than that it had projected.

However, this amount is still lower than its income for February 2016, when MIRA generated 1.71 billion, the most it had in a month for seven years.

MIRA stated that the increase in revenue – in comparison to the projected amount – was influx through acquisition costs, conversion fees, and lease extensions.

However, the bulk of February’s profit were accumulated through Goods and Service Tax (GST) – a total of MVR 628 million.

The authority had also made 137 million through Business Profit Taxes (BPT), 64 million through green tax, and 45 million through airport service charges. MIRA made 45 million in US dollars.

MIRA announced its largest income-month ever to be January 2017, when it had garnered 2.2 billion. This was 27.2 percent more than it had projected.

The bulk of January’s income came through BPT and tourism land rents, the authority had said. 

Of January’s profits, MVR 943.88 million came from BPTs and MVR 742.64 million came from GSTs - 66.4 million was US dollars.