The Parliament has ended today's session without a vote on the Tax Act Amendment Bill citing a lack of quorum for the vote.
The session ended after the vote was put on the agenda for today by the MP for Vilufushi Constituency Hassan Afeef who was in charge of today's session.
MP Afeef usually takes charge of the parliamentary session in the absence of the Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed and Vice Speaker Eva Abdullah.
MP Afeef said that the vote cannot be held as the required quorum was not met which prompted MPs affiliated with the government to voice their outrage on the parliament floor.
But the MP left the chambers after ending the session amid the uproar from his fellow MDP MPs.
The government has been pushing the Tax Act Amendment Bill that would see a hike in taxes and the government has said that this was necessary to maintain the economic outlook of the country.
The controversial bill has divided the majority ruling party MDP itself and MP Afeef belonged to the MDP faction that has voiced their opposition to the bill.
The bill was brought to the floor and opened for debate but since no MP put their names up for the debate, the bill went straight to the vote.
The delay in passing the bill plays right into the hands of the opposition who also doesn't support the bill. They expressed their opposition to the bill by staging a protest outside the parliament building today against the bill.
