Vanuatu citizenship sales exceed projections in 2020
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Vanuatu's government has revealed it generated over $US106 million US dollars in revenue from citizenship sales last year.
The Finance Ministry said says on average a billion vatu, or $US9 million dollars, was collected each month.
This meant that the Vanuatu National Citizenship Commission granted citizenship to at least 70 applications monthly.
The revenue generated far exceeded the 2020 revenue projection made by parliament in 2019.
At that point, Vanuatu projected revenue of around 66-million US dollars.
According to the Vanuatu Daily Post, the overall figure is expected to rise further when December's revenue is calculated.
The commission's chairman, Ronald Warsal, said the government set a revenue target of $US105 million for 2021.
Meanwhile he said the contracts for agents under the Development Support Programme will lapse on 29 January, and were subject to renewal.
Warsal said the Commission would increase the criteria for scrutinising agents, with the commission concerned that not all of them have performed.
Source: RNZ