President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced last night that small and medium enterprises (SME) will receive special concessions so they can grow.
While speaking as Guest of Honour at the awards ceremony of the "Maldives Expo 2026", President Muizzu said there are special efforts underway for the growth of businesses.
In finding concessions for those businesses, the President has decided to make arrangements where SMEs can offset the tax they need to pay. While highlighting that it is the deduction between funds from the government to the SME and the tax SMEs owe, President Muizzu stated it will serve as a major concession for SMEs.
"This means that the money the government owes SMEs and the tax SMEs have to pay to the government will be offset. For example, if the tax a company has to pay is a small amount compared to the funds the government has to give them, the company will not have to pay tax in that instance," said the President.
"They can take the difference from the government. Conversely, if the tax they have to pay is higher than what the government owes them, it will be deducted and then the remaining tax will have to be paid."
With that chance, the tax owed by SMEs will be greatly reduced.
As a second concession, President Muizzu announced that the MVR 1 million threshold for tax payments will be increased to MVR 1.5 million from 2027. He also said work is being done to bring about the necessary legal and guideline changes.
"Our hope is to increase the threshold to MVR 1.5 million from 1st January. The law and regulations will see the necessary amendments," spoke the President.
In order to provide concessions for the raw materials imported by SMEs to Maldives, President Muizzu has created a list of the items and announced that he will make the change where any item on the list would not be subject to any import duties. He said that this change will be put into place for five years from 1st January 2027.
The President went on to say that there are many obstacles to Maldives' manufacturing capabilities and for SMEs receiving foreign currency, and that many efforts are underway to resolve these issues.
President Muizzu continued, stating that via an opportunity from the Bank of Maldives (BML), Ministry of Economic Development, Transport and Trade and Business Center Corporation (BCC), arrangements have been made where Maldivian manufacturers will be able to receive payments in USD from the international market via the BML Payment Gateway from November 2026.
"We hope to make arrangements for procuring foreign goods and services from Maldives with the payments made in USD via remittances and the usage of cards. Arrangements will come into force from 1st November 2026 where businesses will be able to easily pay for services they use such as subscription payments," mentioned the President.
These will serve as major concessions for those working in the SME sector, get rid of obstacles in increasing revenue and increase the revenue that goes into their pockets, said President Muizzu. And so, he said that he hopes many people start their own small businesses and become self-reliant, and assured that the government will cooperate with those efforts.
