The Parliament's Committee on Environment and Climate Change has voted to proceed with stakeholder discussions on decommissioning businesses that continue to evade fines imposed for environmental damage.

The motion was proposed by West Maafannu MP Mohamed Musthafa Ibrahim, who outlined three key actions:

• Summon senior officials from the Transport Ministry.


• Verify whether the Environment Ministry has discussed the matter with the Economic Ministry.


• Assess the feasibility of halting operations of non-compliant businesses and send a formal request if possible.

All committee members present unanimously approved the motion.

MP Musthafa stressed the need for Transport Ministry officials to address the ongoing issue of illegally operating vessels and the ministry’s failure to establish regulations for enforcing penalties. He questioned, “Why is there no regulation on this [action to be taken if vessels do not pay the fine]?”

He also noted that while the Environment Ministry had previously stated that businesses could potentially be shut down to recover unpaid fines, legal authority to do so rests with the Economic Ministry rather than the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

In October last year, officials from the EPA and the Attorney General’s Office were summoned to discuss challenges in collecting environmental fines. The EPA cited its lack of authority to take legal action as the primary obstacle, while the AG’s Office highlighted the increasing issue of foreign vessels leaving the Maldives without settling their fines.

As of December, more than MVR 825 million in environmental fines remain unpaid, according to EPA data.