Parliament extends session to expedite council land seizure and USD exchange bills

The Parliament has extended its current session by a week, citing the need to complete “important work.”

The second session of the year had been set to conclude on Saturday.

But on Wednesday morning, Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla proposed extending the session to August 20.

The proposal passed with a unanimous vote of 58 in the afternoon.

The move comes as the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), which holds a supermajority in the Parliament, seeks to fast-track a contentious new bill that seeks to grant the central government greater powers to seize land under the jurisdiction of local councils.

The bill, which proposes introducing new provisions to the Decentralization Act, was submitted on August 5 by Thulhaadhoo MP Abdul Hannan Aboobakr, an independent aligned with the ruling party.

The bill was admitted into the Parliament on Monday with a majority vote of 55-8, and sent to the Decentralization Committee, which on Tuesday set a five-day deadline to complete its review.

The Parliament is also set to hear a no-confidence motion submitted by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) against Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed.

It is also likely to pass amendments proposed by the government to the Foreign Currency Act during the extension. The bill seeks to drop the current option for resorts to exchange USD 500 per tourist, and require that the facilities to exchange 20 percent of the monthly revenue.

It also seeks to raise the yearly revenue threshold for non-tourism local businesses that generate USD revenue that are required to exchange their revenue from USD 15 million to USD 25 million. With the change, non-tourism local businesses that generate an annual revenue of USD 25 million or higher will be required to exchange seven percent of their monthly revenue at a local bank.