The Budget was delivered last week.
After all the speculation andrumours, the Interim Minister for Finance delivered the budget at a glitzy event .
Among the notable attendees were former interim Minister for Finance M.P. Chaudhry.
LF sources indicate that M.P Chaudhry and Commodore Bainimarama were in high spirits and exchanged jokes. In keeping with the recent times, Mr John Samy featured prominently.
The Budget has received the Thumbs Up from Fijis version of Donald Trump, Hari Punja. Mr Punja called the budget "business friendly"
Maybe because the company tax rate went down in the 2009 budget.
Why wouldnt he be happy?
More saqamoli for him and the family. Its not called Punja and Sons for nothing.
The personal tax rate remained unchanged.
So, its no wonder that Mr Punja was singing the praise for the budget.
The logic behind the cut is to encourage business investment. In other words, businessmen like Hari Punja will build new factories and hire more workers.
There is one big catch in this .
The profits go overseas to Mr Punjas family members, none of whom live permanently in Fiji.
Nope.
Be it Tappoos, Punjas, Motibhai...they all spend majority of their time in Australia and NZ. In Fiji, all their business is debt financed. Its not their money they are investing.
Its all on credit people and successive governments have given them "tax incentives" like you wouldnt believe.
Imagine if you had a 15 year tax holiday....wouldn't you be laughing all the way to the bank.
INDEPENDENT,BALANCED,IMPARTIAL.
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