State revenue earned through Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has increased by 2.7% in 2019, compared to the previous year.
The state received an income of USD 1.086 billion in 2019, according to the statistics publicised by MIRA. The state revenue in 2018 was USD 1.057 billion.
The largest contribution to state revenue last year was made by Goods and Services Tax (GST), which contributed USD 457 million. The figure represents 42.1% of the total revenue.
Meanwhile, USD 252 million was earned through tourism and land rent, which represents 23.2% of the total revenue. The state earned a combined total of USD 376 million through Business Profit Tax (BPT), Green Tax and other taxes.
A record revenue was generated to the state in December 2019, with a revenue of USD 100 million recorded for the month. This was an 8.9% increase on the revenue generated in December 2018, while it was also the highest revenue generated during a month of December since 2011.
MIRA says the record revenue of December 2019 was the result of an increase in income earned through taxes, noting the income from Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST), withholding tax, airport service charge, tourism land rent and lease period extension increased during the month.
The state revenue in December 2019 includes USD 42.5 million earned through GST, USD 23.4 million from tourism land rent and USD 4.5 million from Green Tax. Meanwhile, USD 7.8 million was generated from BPT and USD 4.1 million was earned through airport service charge in December 2019.