The Ministry of Finance & Treasury has revealed that the state revenue in January had doubled, just a month after a controversial hike in Goods and Services Tax (GST).

According to statistics published by the Ministry, the state had received over MVR 2 billion in revenue by January 26th. This marks almost a two-fold increase compared to the MVR 1.3 billion in revenue for the same period last year.

The increase to the Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was ratified by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in November 2022. The amendment implemented a hike in GST to 8% from 6% and TGST to 16% from 12% effective from January 1st. With this change, the state received MVR 1.8 billion in tax income alone.

While GST shares a major portion of this, statistics revealed that the GST and TGST income had also doubled in comparison to the same period last year. As such, the numbers stood at MVR 436 million last year while MVR 863 million was received this year. Business Profit Tax contributed the second most to the revenue with MVR 676 million.

The Non-Tax Revenue in January was at MVR 245 million while MVR 5.2 million was received as grants and Capital Receipt was at MVR 1.1 million.