Economic Minister, Fayyaz Ismail, has stated that the expat deposit has MVR 100 million in funds which will be returned to their rightful owners once the Companies Act is revised.

Minister Fayyaz made the remarks while speaking about the revisions submitted to the Companies Act, at the Parliament's Economic Committee.

He added that the expat deposit collection has been a practice for the past two decades, but due to poor management and record keeping, it is difficult to know which funds belong to who.

"The funds in the expat deposit have been collected over various periods of time. However, poor management and record keeping by the Administration has made it difficult to tell which funds belong to who. We are working on standardising the process and asking businesses to bring the receipts they have so that we can do proper record keeping. However, this is a hassle because some funds have been deposited 20 years ago and it is unlikely a person would hold onto the receipt for two decades", Minister Fayyaz said.

He further added that the funds belong to the businesses and should be handed over to the rightful owners soon as possible.

"This is something that should have been done by the Administration diligently. We worked together with the Auditor General (AG) to complete a thorough audit following which the AG informed that there is no proper documentation to help the cause", Minister Fayyaz said.

He added that the Ministry is working on returning the deposits to businesses based on the documentation submitted by them.

He further added that some lawyers stated that the expat deposits by companies that have been dissolved belong to the state. Minister Fayyaz said he disagrees with the notion and that the deposits should be returned to the owners.

Minister Fayyaz said that the revision to the Companies Act will enable the Administration to return the deposits to the companies, including those that have been dissolved for various reasons. He mentioned that in the event that a person who is owed their deposit has passed away, the deposit will be returned to their heirs through the submitted revisions to the Companies Act.

"There are three expat funds that have collected deposits - the current expat fund which does not have many issues and has been maintained well. The other is the fund managed by immigration before and the one prior to that was managed by former labour ministry and MIRA. These funds have about MVR 100 million. We have received applications for the deposit returns that match the amount in the funds" Minister Fayyaz said.