Committee stage to be completed on SEZ Act amendments today

Parliament supermajority, PNC, has begun work to conclude the Committee Stage of the bill proposing amendments to the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act, including provisions for the development of habitable townships.

Baarah MP Ibrahim Shujau submitted the bill to Parliament on behalf of the government, with the bill being sent to the Committee of the Whole House today after the primary debate. The committee usually decides major decisions in Parliament.

PNC Parliamentary Group Leader and Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah stated during the sitting of the Committee of the Whole House that the sitting will come to an end with the work on the bill being concluded. He also said that PNC members are prepared to stay into the late hours of the night in order to do so.

"We have a supermajority of 75 MPs in Parliament. We will conclude this sitting after the committee fully sees to this bill, God willing. We have no issue to keep working on this bill until the late hours of the day," said Falah.

Falah made this statement after South Galolhu MDP MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem submitted a bill relevant to the SEZ Act in order to receive recommendations from the tourism industry stakeholders and hold discussions. Meekail proposed the bill be completed by February 2026 along with the discussions.

However, Falah alleged that this was in order to delay the work on the bill.

The biggest amendment to the SEZ Act is the establishment of a region of categories under the act. As it stands, Article 20 of the SEZ Act states that industrial estates can only be utilized in developing special economic zones. However, as per the bill submitted by Shujau, a "Sustainable Township" category is to be included, effectively seeing an increase to the article numbers.

As per the bill, along with establishment of developing integrated tourism zones under Sustainable Townships, real estate businesses can also be developed. The bill also states that the management of both those resources in the development zone will only be done by one management.