Travellers carrying over USD 10,000 out of the country must explain source

Travellers carrying over USD 10,000 in cash out of the country must now explain the source of funds to authorities, revealed Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusan today.

Speaking at a joint press conference held by the Ministry and its subsidiary agencies, Minster Ihusan said that Maldives Customs' cash declaration regulation has now been amended to make divulging the source of funds exceeding USD 10,000 compulsory.

"Previously anyone carrying over USD 10,000 would just have to declare that they are carrying a certain amount of cash [and] declaration would be complete. However, there are international standards for this. If that individual is carrying over USD 10,000, they have to declare their source of income. [Explain] from where they got the money from," the minister explained.

He revealed that when the new administration took over, there were expatriate labourers who would fly out of the country once a week with hundreds of thousands of dollars each time.

With this new regulation, neither foreigners nor locals would be able to travel outbound without compliance to the new regulations and failure to do so would result in the funds being confiscated, he explained.

"Regardless of whether the individual is a foreigner or local, if they are carrying over USD 10,000 we don't release them until they properly declare the funds and explain the source, and we determine whether their story makes sense legally to conclude the declaration process," Minister Ihusan added.

With this, "outflow of large quantities of cash has now been almost entirely stopped," he said.

Speaking on the topic at the press conference, Deputy Commissioner General of Customer Ibrahim Mafaz gave more context into the situation and explained that proper action has not been taken against those who carry cash out of the quantity in violation of the regulations, because of how the declaration procedure was which came into effect in 2015.

Mafaz said that the only legal recourse was to involve Maldives Police Service to initiate a criminal investigation in such cases, out of which many cases went without any actions taken against those in violation of the regulations because they did not meet the criminal criteria. However, this new amendment will resolve that issue, he said.

"This amendment has legally empowered [us] to take administrative action against those in violation of the regulation. Proceeding with criminal investigations is also easier," Mafaz noted.