Online payment launched for work visa fees

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority launched Sunday an online service for work visa fee payments.

The tax authority’s goal is to provide all collection and payment services online, Commissioner General of Taxations Yazeedh Mohamed said at the launching ceremony.

About MVR304 million (US$19 million) was paid at MIRA’s collection centres by more than 131,000 people last year.

In his remarks, Science and Technology Minister Mohamed Maleeh Jamal said work was ongoing to create an online portal named gov.mv as a one-stop site for government services.

About 150 to 200 people queue up at MIRA every day to pay work visas and it takes an hour to serve each customer, he noted, which costs companies about MVR3.6 million a year.

Launching a website to promote local tourism with information about all inhabited islands is also a wish of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, he said.