Airport Service Charge replaced with three levels of Departure Taxes

The 2020 State Budget has introduced three levels of departure taxes to replace the current Airport Service Charge (ASC) taken from passengers departing from the Maldives from an airport in the Maldives.

Currently, the Airport Service Charge (ASC) collects USD 25 from foreign passengers and USD 12 from Maldivian passengers. This charge was imposed during former President Yameen's administration in order to increase state revenue.

The proposed state budget by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's administration for the upcoming year describes exchanging the current Airport Service Charge with three levels of Departure Taxes as one of the methods to generate state revenue.

Likewise, a Departure Tax rate has already been established.

It states that economy class passengers will be levied at a rate of USD 30 per foreign passenger and USD 12 per Maldivian passenger, whereas business class passengers will be charged at a rate of USD 60 for both foreign passengers and Maldivian passengers, and first-class passengers will have to pay USD 90 for both foreign passengers and Maldivian passenger as well.

According to the budget book, this revision was made to make air travel more accessible whilst taxing the passengers that can afford to pay as they are unlikely to be affected by the price change.

These charges are scheduled to come into effect on April 1st, 2020 and is expected to generate 319.2 million in state revenue.

The GMR Group also attempted to introduce Airport Service Charge (ASC) and Airport Development Fee (ADF)'s during their time in charge of Velana International Airport, however, this received a large amount of public backlash.

Nevertheless, despite the backlash and concerns voiced by the public, former president Yameen enforced these taxes and charged a fee of USD 24 per Maldivian passenger and USD 50 per foreign passenger.