The Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has approved amendments to the Foreign Exchange Act, introducing heavy fines for individuals and businesses selling foreign currency at rates exceeding the official exchange rate set by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).
The committee passed these measures as part of additional revisions proposed to the Foreign Exchange Bill after it was recently recommitted to the committee for further review.
Under the new amendments, it is strictly prohibited to sell or attempt to sell foreign currency through any means at a rate higher than the official rate or outside the exchange rate band established and published by the MMA. Violators of this provision will face fines ranging from MVR 25,000 to MVR 1 million.
Furthermore, the committee approved a ban on the promotion or advertisement of foreign currency sales at inflated rates. For the purposes of this law, "advertising and promotion" is defined as the disclosure, publication, dissemination, repetition, or distribution of information—via digital tools, platforms, or any other public medium—intended to advertise, encourage, or facilitate the exchange of foreign currency at rates above the MMA’s official benchmark.
If a legal entity or a registered business is found to be involved in such offenses, the penalty is a fine between MVR 100,000 and MVR 5 million.
With these changes, publishing news reports regarding black market dollar rates will also become a legal offense. This move follows recent remarks by Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed, who suggested that media reports on exchange rates contribute to the appreciation of the dollar against the local currency.
