President Solih ratifies 18th amendment to Export-Import Act

The 18th amendment bill to the Export-Import Act of the Maldives has been ratified.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih ratified the amendment bill on Tuesday, enabling the ban on importing any goods declared as single-use plastic by the president under Section 7 of the Export-Import Act.

The People’s Majlis passed the 18th amendment to the act at its 28th sitting of the year’s last session, on December 7.

Following ratification, the act has been publicized in the government gazette.

The newly ratified amendment gives the president authority to compile and publish a list of goods prohibited to be imported to Maldives, the president may also add and remove goods from the list.

The government expects the ratification of the amendment to enable Maldives to steadily phase out single-use plastic.

Under the amendment, the government is mandated to compile and publicize the list of banned single-use plastics, including the date from which the changes are to come into effect, before January 1, 2021.

Upon ratification, Section 12 of the 17th Amendment to the Export-Import Act is void. The 17th amendment to the act was ratified during July 2020.

The 17th amendment states that export duties will not be taken from anything that is not listed under the third section of the Export-Import Act.

Parliament in mid-2019 passed a resolution to ban single-use plastics in Maldives from 2025 onward, after students from a number of schools collectively submitted a proposal that details the dangers of single-use plastic.

In December 2018, the president launched a campaign to eliminate single-use plastic.