The government has initiated a coordinated cross-agency enforcement mechanism to recover over USD 600 million in outstanding land rent, municipal fees, and tax arrears tied to 161 resort development projects across the country.
The Ministry of Tourism and the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority confirmed the joint enforcement drive on Tuesday, stating that substantial accumulated debts have placed severe strain on state foreign currency liquidity and fiscal reserves.
Scope of resort development arrears
According to regulatory audits, the arrears comprise unpaid island land rents, delayed resort lease extension fees, and accrued Green Tax and Tourism Goods and Services Tax liabilities. While operational resorts account for a portion of the debt, authorities highlighted that dozens of undeveloped islands leased for tourism have accumulated substantial fines over prolonged periods of non-performance.
The Ministry of Tourism indicated that non-compliant leaseholders are being served with formal notices to execute structured settlement agreements or face lease cancellation:
"The accumulation of USD 600 million across 161 projects represents a critical drain on public revenue. The government will implement statutory recovery procedures, including legal reclamation of uncompleted island leases, if developers fail to meet fiscal obligations," the ministry stated.
The government noted that recovering these funds is essential to bolstering the state’s foreign exchange reserves and servicing upcoming external sovereign debt obligations.
Enforcing lease compliance
Under the revised enforcement strategy, MIRA will coordinate with commercial banks and judicial authorities to impose asset liens, freeze commercial accounts, and block statutory clearances for chronic non-payers.
Concurrently, the Ministry of Tourism will review islands where resort construction has been stalled for over five years without tangible physical progress. Authorities emphasized that revoking stalled leases will allow the state to re-tender prime lagoons to capable international hospitality investors, revitalizing employment in outer atolls.
