The state collected MVR 918 million as green fund by the end of June 2020.

According to the green fund report released by the Ministry of Finance, the amount is approximately MVR 918,307,847.29.

By the end of June, MVR 148,152,349.68 had been spent from the green fund and funds totaling MVR 283,878,557.96 were deposited to the fund.

Expenditure from the green fund were mostly for projects such as establishment of sewer systems, coastal protection, land reclamation and revetment, water and sewerage systems as well as water supply networks among several others.

The greatest amount was retracted for the Land Reclamation and Revetment project in Thilafushi island of Kaafu atoll, worth MVR 16,051,580.00.

The statistics go on to reveal that the green fund had a total of MVR 782,581,639.01 at the beginning of the ongoing year.

Due to the situation surrounding the global Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s tourism industry came to a complete standstill for over three months. This caused the state revenue to come to a complete standstill during the second quarter of 2020. Due to the virus, green tax revenue had significantly dropped after tourist establishments were shut down and the border closed on March 27.

Since reopening borders on July 15, tourist resorts and liveaboard vessels have been allowed to operate, guesthouses outside of the greater Malé region are to be given the green light to resume operations on October 15. Very recently, the government made it mandatory for tourists to provide a negative PCR test for Covid-19, before arriving in the country.

Although borders have reopened and Maldives initially aimed to break last year’s tourist arrivals record. This vision was soiled by the pandemic and Maldives will fall way below the projected figures, even with passenger arrival numbers on the up turn within the past few weeks.