Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has begun work to amend the Foreign Currency Act, specifically “Category A” in USD exchange for resorts, which has the option for USD 500 to be exchanged in to MVR per tourist.
MMA stated they have sent the amendments to the Attorney General’s Office and they believe the amendments will be sent to the Parliament very soon.
The Foreign Currency Act came into force in January 2025, with the option for resorts in “Category A” to exchange USD 500 into MVR per tourist via banks or for them to exchange 20 percent of their total monthly USD income into MVR.
With the amendment however, resorts will have to exchange 20 percent of their total monthly income. MMA said that they decided to draft the amendment to include all resorts having to exchange the same amount. They also said high-end resorts continue to exchange USD for USD 500 per tourist into MVR, and that smaller resorts exchange 20 percent of their total monthly USD income into MVR.
And so, MMA said the businesses face quite a bit of losses when it comes to conversion, and that the amendment will see USD exchange via banks to around USD 100 million per year.
Guesthouses that are in Category B of the Foreign Currency Act will not see any changes.
The amendments also propose increasing the revenue threshold for non-tourism businesses required to convert US dollar earnings through Category C banks from USD 15 million to USD 25 million.
Once the amendment takes effect, non-tourism businesses with annual revenues below USD 25 million will no longer be required to convert their US dollar earnings through banks.
Around 12 companies currently fall under the category and convert their USD earnings into MVR.
MMA said the amendment is not expected to change the amount of USD currently being converted into MVR.
MMA said that category has many different businesses, which includes businesses from the construction and telecommunication industries.
If Maldivian businesses are included in Category C within the amendment, MMA will receive the opportunity to lower the USD exchange amount from revenue to 7 percent.
In order to properly monitor deposit requirements, MMA has made it so that foreign bank POS transactions can only be carried out if the funds go through a Maldivian bank account. To this end, MMA has decided to amend the National Payment System Act as well.
While Maldives’ tourism industry received a revenue of USD 5.6 billion in 2025, a large portion of it still has not entered Maldives’ banking system, with MMA having decided to take additional steps to ensure the revenue enters the system.
There is an ongoing effort to launch a national switch in order to monitor all of the transactions within Maldives, with an amendment to the act having been submitted as well. This will show all of the information on an online transaction via the National Payment System.
Leave a comment