Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology has tonight announced that names of the companies that have now settled overdue work permit fees, quota fees, and subsequent fines in relation to expatriate workers.
Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology has tonight announced that names of the companies that have now settled overdue work permit fees, quota fees, and subsequent fines in relation to expatriate workers.
These payments were settled after the Ministry, on July 24, publicly disclosed a list of companies that had failed to pay these fees for an extended period of time, and as a result, had additional fines against them as well. This list included 1,026 companies, which owed a total of MVR 636 million.
Within three weeks of publicizing this list, the Ministry recovered MVR 182,954,572 in overdue payments.
Tonight, the Ministry has announced the names of companies which were on the initial list who have since completely settled their overdue payments.
The companies announced tonight are:
1. Alia Construction
2. Angiri Resorts Management and Operations
3. Brennia Maldives
4. Chicano Investment
5. East Coast Investment
6. Gage
7. Heavy Force
8. Horizon Fisheries
9. International Beverages Company
10. PestEx Maldives
11. Mahogany Pvt Ltd
12. Pristine Islands Investments
13. RedWave
14. Renaatus Projects
15. Seagull Group
16. SK Maldives
17. The Hawks
18. Universal Enterprises
19. Villa Hakatha
20. Villa Shipping and Trading Company
Of these, Villa Shipping Trading Company, Villa Hakatha, Universal Enterprises, Alia Construction, Seagull Group, The Hawks and RedWave are well renowned and major businesses in the country.
Homeland Security Ministry stated tonight that the names of these companies were earlier disclosed for non-payment after their overdue payments had exceeded MVR 100,000. They said that these companies are now regularly settling the payments for services provided through the expat system.
They highlighted that these twenty companies have settled all overdue fees and fines.
The Ministry also said that additional companies have also made some payments after the initial list had been released. These companies, however, were not included on tonight's list as they still have some outstanding payments to be settled.
"Some of the companies have paid up to MVR 600,000, but there are still payments due for them, so they are not on the list of companies that have completed payments," an official from the Ministry explained.
As per the list that was released by the government, 123 companies owed more than a million each to the State. Some companies had stacked up over MVR 26 million in dues.
Work permit fee - MVR 573,840,450
Quota fee - MVR 96,559,286
Cancellation fines - MVR 2,144,000