The Establishment of the Utility Regulatory Authority

On Sunday, the President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih ratified the ‘Utility Regulatory Authority Act'. The Act was passed by Parliament on 23rd November 2020, at the 20th sitting of its third session of this year. Following this today, the President’s Office has announced the establishment of the ‘Utility Regulatory Authority’ by the President under Section 3A of this Act.

Utility Regulatory Authority is the official authority which will oversee the management of public utility services across the country. With its formation, the Maldives Energy Authority, which functioned under the Ministry of Environment for a similar purpose, has been dissolved.

Photo: The President's Office

According to the Act, Utility Regulatory Authority will assure the provision of high quality utility services to all those residing in the Maldives in a more affordable, sustainable and trustworthy manner which is efficient and also environment friendly. Further to this, the authority will also undertake the task of licensing utility companies as their registrar in addition to investigate and penalize companies that violate laws and regulations pertaining to utility services.

The authority is also required to connect households to the water and sewerage grid, free of charge and must also adopt measures to protect an island's freshwater lens, while providing solutions for low-income households to afford utility services.