President Muizzu ratified the amendment to the Export-Import Act cutting cigarette duty from MVR 8 (US$ 0.5) to MVR 4 per stick, also covering pre-hand rolled cigarettes and heated tobacco consumables, while exempting nicotine replacement products such as gum and patches from import duties entirely. The amendment took effect upon publication in the gazette.
Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafiu said around 8,000 students have been absent from school since the World Cup began with late-night matches running into the early morning hours. He urged parents not to let their children skip school to watch games. The ministry has been tracking daily attendance through a platform launched last month.
The Maldives Financial Expo 2026 kicked off at Hulhumalé Central Park, bringing together 30 financial-sector participants for the first such event in nine years. President Muizzu opened the expo, organised by the central bank, the MMA, and toured the stalls. Running daily from 3pm to 10pm until Saturday, it gathers banks, insurers, regulators, higher-education providers and state institutions, with the aim of connecting them with the public and promoting financial literacy. Panel discussions for finance professionals and policymakers will cover financial inclusion, literacy and the sector's future, alongside a food festival, children's activities and a fireworks display.
A ground-floor apartment at Block 110 in Hulhumalé Phase 1 caught fire early in the morning. MNDF firefighters extinguished the blaze within about 13 minutes of being alerted at 01:10am. Two children and three adults were taken to hospital with varying degrees of fire-related injuries.
A court ordered the three-month closure of a house in Hithadhoo known as "Mailocity," the third so-called drug café shut in Addu under court orders, after police said it was used for drug consumption, supply of paraphernalia, and large-scale drug dealing, and was linked to gang violence, kidnapping and theft in the surrounding area.
The Department of Judicial Administration refused a right-to-information request for five years of judges' attendance records, citing security concerns under provisions allowing withholding of information that could endanger a person's safety, while the Civil Court separately refused the same request citing third-party interests.
The Maldives pledged US$ 50,000 annually to UNRWA at a donor conference at UN headquarters, matching its 2024 contribution, with the Maldives Permanent Representative calling support for the agency an investment in human dignity and the international legal order rather than merely a budgetary decision.
STELCO posted a profit of MVR 239 million last year, up around 30 percent on 2024's MVR 181 million, according to a financial audit. The state electricity company earned MVR 3.3 billion in revenue against MVR 2.6 billion in costs, with the higher profit helped by lower finance costs. Those costs fell partly because the finance ministry has suspended charging interest on several government loans since 2023. In 2025, the government waived MVR 11.5 million in accrued interest, treating it as a capital contribution, an arrangement the auditor flagged as unrecorded and unresolved. Auditor General Hussain Niyazy also qualified the accounts over an MVR 1.29 billion government loan from 2009 for the fourth powerhouse project, whose balance the office could not verify, 17 years on, for lack of a signed agreement. The company declared a dividend of MVR 143 million to the government for 2025.
Bank of Maldives launched SplitPay, a buy-now-pay-later service allowing eligible credit cardholders to split purchases of MVR 1,500 and above into monthly instalments of three, six, 12, 18 or 24 months at a nine percent annual finance rate, with instalments tracked directly on the cardholder's monthly credit card statement.
BML raised the daily dollar allocation for e-commerce platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress, after opening a new dollar-investment scheme on Tuesday. Mohamed Saeed, BML's head of branding and marketing strategy, told PSM that the limits had drawn many complaints, and that within the first 24 hours of the scheme the bank had been able to widen the daily allocation, letting more customers get payments through on the platforms. Saeed said the scheme benefits three groups: the dollar investors, the bank, and customers making online card payments.
The High Court's judicial council overturned the registrar's twice-repeated refusal to accept a constitutional challenge against the government's decision to reopen shark fishing, ordering the case to proceed after finding it sufficiently argued that the regulation violates Article 22 of the constitution. The case was filed by two environmental activists in December; the legal team said they would refile within the 10-day window given.
