The Maldives Customs Service has revealed the revenue collected from imports and exports increased by 3% in September.
Statistics show that Customs collected a revenue of USD23 million in September this year, which is a 3% increase compared to the USD22 million collected during the same month last year.
Additionally, the value of imports also decreased by 3% to USD279 million. Oman, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, and Singapore were the biggest contributors to imports, according to Customs. As such, USD57 million in goods were imported from Oman, while USD44 million were imported from India, USD32 million from the UAE, USD26 million from China, and USD26 million from Singapore. The largest categories of imports were fuel, food items, and machinery, mechanical and electrical appliances.
Moreover, USD6 million in goods were exported from the Maldives in September, which is a 43% decrease compared to the same month last year. The Maldives exported the largest number of goods to Thailand, the United Kingdom (UK), France, India, and Germany. Around 38% of the goods were exported to Thailand while 24% were exported to the UK, 7% were exported to France, 6% to India, and 4% to Germany. Among the most exported items were various frozen and preserved fish products.
The statistics also show that 103 vessels arrived in the Maldives and 17,720 declarations were processed in September this year, which is an increase compared to the 88 vessel arrivals and 17,969 declarations in the same month last year.