Villa does not owe any money to MIRA : Villa Group
Villa Group have stated that Villa Group does not owe any money to Maldives Inland Revenue Authority.
The legal team of Villa Group issued a statement after MIRA announced that they have filed a case against Villa Group to claim 166 million dollars from Villa Group.
The statement says that Villa Shipping and Trading Company private limited, Villa Hotels and Resorts Private Limited, Villa Holidays Private Limited, Gazeera Private Limited, and Maanenfushi Private Limited has contracted 5 different agreements with Ministry of tourism. In addition, it says that the construction period for these resorts have not ended and rent payment period is also not due.
Furthermore, the statement says that Tourism Ministry annulled the agreements between these companies on 5th February, and Villa Group filed the case to the court. The case is currently in Supreme Court and according to Villa Group, lawyers of the state even admitted that the agreements were annulled without any wrong doings from Villa Group.
In addition, the statement says that the Supreme Court has not issued a verdict regarding this case, but MIRA has frozen Villa’s bank accounts, stopped providing some services to Villa, filed the case to the court and informed media about it in an attempt to hurt the company’s good reputation. The statement says that this was an irresponsible act by MIRA.
The statement further states that, the agreement between Villa Group and Tourism Ministry shows that none of these companies had to pay any fines to the state regarding any of these islands or lagoons. Under these agreements, Villa has to pay rent when the construction period is over. The statement says that, the construction period for the resorts will end in 2018 and for the lagoons the construction period will end in 2020. In addition these companies paid more than 15 million dollars to the state as advance rent payment, however because of the actions of Tourism Ministry Villa Group is unable to develop these islands as per the statement issued by Villa Group.
Villa Group called all relevant government authorities to stop violating the rights of Villa Group, which is resulting the group in huge financial losses.
