Government to consult tourism industry on potential T-GST increase
08 May 2012, 7:09 PM
The government will hold a consultation with the tourism industry this week to test its appetite for an increase in the Tourism-GST (TGST), Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb has said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Maldives to increase the T-GST from six percent to 12 percent, among several measures the organisation says are urgently needed to offset the Maldives’ spiraling budget deficit, and avoid miring the country in poverty.
Parliament’s Finance Committee last week calculated that the budget deficit would reach 27 percent of GDP, on the back of plunging revenues and a 24 percent increase in government expenditure.
Adheeb told Minivan News that the government would present the IMF’s report to the industry, and discuss how to proceed: “We have to be realistic,” he said.
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