Eighth Amendment to the GST Act Ratified
The Eighth Amendment to the Goods and Services Tax Act (“Amendment”) was ratified and published in the Government Gazette on 31 August 2026.
The Amendment largely retains the framework proposed in the Bill submitted on 15 August 2026 including new GST rules for offshore suppliers of Maldives inbound tourism products, revised place of supply rules, revised definitions of goods and services, and broader tourism sector provisions.
Three notable changes were made to the final Amendment:
Definition of services
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- “Services” is now defined broadly as anything other than goods, excluding money. This provides greater clarity that supplies falling outside the revised definition of tangible movable or immovable goods will generally be treated as services.
Offshore travel agencies and booking services
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- Section 15 has been aligned with the new place of supply rules to expressly bring agency and booking services relating to inbound tourism products within the tourism sector. Accordingly, it is now clearer that travel agencies and booking platforms falling within these provisions will be required to register for TGST regardless of their level of turnover.
Power to obtaining information
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- MIRA has been given additional powers to obtain information from registered persons regarding offshore suppliers of inbound tourism products. For example, MIRA could require tourist resorts or vessels to provide information on foreign tour operators or travel agencies to whom room nights are sold or allocated for onward resale.
The Amendment also retains the special margin-based valuation mechanism for offshore suppliers of inbound tourism products, under which GST is imposed on the supplier’s margin rather than the full selling price, with no input tax deduction available.
Collectively, these changes are aimed at advancing the destination principle by seeking to impose GST where the underlying consumption or economic activity takes place in the Maldives, even where the supplier itself has no physical presence in the country.
The provisions relating to inbound tourism products will take effect from 1 October 2026, while consequential amendments to the GST Regulation are to be made within 30 days. Further guidance from MIRA will be important in clarifying the practical registration, reporting and compliance requirements for affected offshore suppliers.
Effective date
The Amendment is effective from 31 August 2026
