The Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail has urged local telecommunication service providers to stop disconnecting services for customers who are unable to pay their bills at a time the entire country is suffering from an economic downturn due to the Covid-19 crisis.

This comes in response to concerns risen by social media users due to their internet connections being cut off due to failure to pay bills.

As such, the economic minister noted that it will be appreciated if telecom providers could “hold disconnections” during this “dark and painful” time. He however, expressed gratitude to Ooredoo Maldives and Dhiraagu for the support being extended to the government’s Covid-19 containment efforts.

Twitter users have been expressing concern over their internet connections being cut off as most of the citizens are currently unable to pay bills during the crisis. As such, the people have recommended telecom providers to put bills on hold so that customers can settle them once the situation simmers down.

In March, the government sought support from service providers for an initiative by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to ensure telecommunication and internet connectivity will be enhanced for the people during this critical time. The initiative is part of the government’s efforts to curb the spread the pandemic in the island nation.

As such, the government has recognized that the people have had their ways of income and earning cut short due to the pandemic and that the lockdown adds to the additional burden on internet usage for those e-schooling and working from home. With this being said, the government requested for service providers to pledge their support for the initiative which asks them to assist their consumers in these areas for the next three months if the State of Public Health Emergency is not lifted.

As such, service providers are requested to provide free, fast and reliable internet access to the Covid-19 task force operation centers and cells, provide free access to internet for everyone during the period of mandatory isolation or quarantine and recognize the extra demand for data beyond normal usage and increase the current data caps, lower the price of data boosts.

This comes at a time several companies affected by the repercussions of the pandemic have been putting their employees on no-pay leave, terminating them and slashing salaries. Due to this, several citizens have been suffering financially, especially during the ongoing fasting month of Ramadan.