The regulation for registering land-based motor vehicles has been amended to allow the registration of a new vehicle as a replacement for a previous one.
Clause (r) of that regulation currently states that for motor vehicles with more than two wheels, registration is granted only upon submission of documents including a letter from a garage owner stating they have no objection to the vehicle being kept there, a copy of the garage owner’s ID card, and a document verifying that the garage is a registered one.
The eighth amendment to this regulation, published by the Ministry of Transport, adds a new sub-clause following clause (r) of the registration section in Article 4.
The newly added sub-clause (r)(1) states that despite the provisions in (r), if a Small or Medium Enterprise (SME) wishes to register a vehicle with more than two wheels in the business’s name to replace another vehicle used for the business’s own purposes, the new vehicle can be registered without submitting those [garage] documents.
However, such registration will only be granted after the vehicle previously used by the business has been scrapped.
In cases where the new vehicle is to be registered in the same zone as the scrapped vehicle, certain conditions must be met.
Conditions included in the regulation:
- Submission of a document proving the vehicle has been scrapped.
- The scrapped vehicle must be one registered for the business’s own use and must have been in use up until the time of scrapping.
- The scrapped vehicle must be one for which the annual fees have been paid regularly for the past five years.
Previously, the regulation for registering land vehicles required all documents related to the service to be submitted along with the application form.
These included a document proving the vehicle was imported to the Maldives, a document proving payment of import duty if applicable, identification of the applicant, a roadworthiness report, and other documents specified for submission.
