Maldives Green Fund — Statutory Tourist Green Tax for Environmental Protection

The Maldives introduced a per-tourist-night 'Green Tax' under the Tourism Act, phased in from 2015, applied to every foreign visitor staying at a resort, hotel, guesthouse or safari vessel. In 2019 the Maldives Green Fund (MGF) was formally established as a trust fund under the Public Finance Act, administered by the Ministry of Finance together with the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy, to receive and disburse this revenue on environmental protection, waste management, water and sewerage infrastructure and coastal protection.

Since January 2025 the tax stands at USD 12 per tourist per night at resorts, hotels and safari vessels and USD 6 per night at guesthouses (Maldivian nationals and resident-permit holders are exempt). Disbursed funds have gone toward water and sewerage systems, sanitation infrastructure, regional waste-management facilities and coastal-erosion protection works on inhabited islands.

Revenue has scaled with tourism: roughly USD 29.75 million was collected in the first half of 2019 alone, and by 2025 annual collections reached about MVR 2.25 billion (roughly USD 146 million). Disbursement has consistently lagged collection: in 2025 only about MVR 275.2 million (roughly 12%) of the MVR 2.25 billion collected was spent, leaving a year-end balance of MVR 3.59 billion by December 2025 (up from MVR 1.61 billion at the end of 2024); in the first seven months of 2023 the fund had collected USD 40.06 million against USD 23.1 million spent. Independent commentators attribute the gap to bottlenecks in project planning, procurement and implementation capacity rather than a lack of environmental need.