The Cabinet Committee report has revealed that the letter to deduct the amount for the Airport Development Charge and Insurance fee from the concession fee payable to Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) by GMR had been based on a draft sent by the Indian company.
The civil court had previously ruled against the USD27 charge being taken from passengers.
The consent for GMR to deduct USD27 from MACL was approved within just one day. These include all the documentation from the Economic Ministry, Finance Ministry, Attorney General and the MACL.
Cabinet report stated that the government considered the letter after GMR sent a letter to the Finance Ministry and MACL stating that they would deduct the USD27 to compensate for the loss due to civil court ruling.
The approval for GMR to deduct the amount from MACL had been reached on January 5, 2012. The MACL approval letter to deduct the amount from the concession fee was sent to the Finance Ministry. Finance Ministry asked for legal advice from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on the same day. AGO gave counsel that it deems the civil court decision comes under the article 18 “Believes that it is a political event” of the GMR agreement. Therefore in this situation, the AG suggested that it was a right of GMR to deduct the amount. Hence the approval was given from the Finance Ministry on the same day.
04/12/12 Haveeru Online
