diff --git a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/ManifestMerger.cs b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/ManifestMerger.cs
index a2428b584cc..99c3c7a1a9a 100644
--- a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/ManifestMerger.cs
+++ b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tasks/ManifestMerger.cs
@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ protected virtual CommandLineBuilder GetCommandLineBuilder ()
 					sb.AppendLine (entry);
 				}
 			}
+			sb.AppendLine ("--lenientUsesSdkInManifestHandling");
 			sb.AppendLine ("--out");
 			sb.AppendLine (tempFile);
 			File.WriteAllText (responseFile, sb.ToString ());
diff --git a/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle b/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
index 1c22cc978fd..9b600961ea5 100644
--- a/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
+++ b/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ repositories {
 
 dependencies {
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.android.tools.build/manifest-merger
-    implementation 'com.android.tools.build:manifest-merger:31.12.2'
+    implementation 'com.android.tools.build:manifest-merger:31.13.0'
 }
 
 sourceSets {