President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom has passed the amended bill on tariffs for fuel.

Following ratification, the bill has been published on the gazette.

Parliament on Wednesday passed the amendment to ‘reduce’ tariff rates on fuel to five percent.

The current administration had introduced a 10 percent levy on fuel. Previous administrations had a zero-tariff rate on fuel. With this amendment, the tariff rate had been ‘reduced’ to five percent.

Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had proposed an addendum, which had proposed to revert to the zero-tariff.

Thirty MPs had voted in favour of the MDP addendum, with 41 MPs voting against it.

Following the failure of the addendum, the Parliament passed to ‘reduce’ tariffs to five percent, with 73 MPs voting for the motion.

Opposition MPs had criticized the Government for rejecting the zero-tariff motion.