The Customs Monthly Statistics Report, which contains figures on imports and exports, has not been published for two months.

The last report was published in December. Customs usually publishes the report in the middle of the following month.

A Customs media official told Adhadhu last week that the report was being delayed due to other works and that it would be published soon.

However, the agency had not published a report for January by the end of February.

Meanwhile, there are speculations about the reason for a decline of MVR 100 million in import duty compared to last year.

Some experts say this is due to the Maldives-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which came into force in January. But the government denies this.

At a press conference in February, Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed said the decline in revenue had nothing to do with the FTA.

He shared the prices of goods imported from China and duty exemption figures to support his statement.

There are also speculations that the decline in revenue is because of a decrease in cigarette imports following tax hikes.

Saeed said he would have to clarify further to comment on that.