Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry’s latest statement trying to rubbish inflation rate of 3.7 per cent in January is yet another example of his characteristic as a habitual liar who as a national leader lied to the people of Fiji to promote his self-interest and personal advancement.
Prof Prasad in a statement said the very last thing that the Coalition Government or anybody else for that matter in Fiji needs is a lecture by Chaudhry about any governance and policy issue.
“Chaudhry is fully aware inflation statistics are collected and released by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, which is an independent and professional agency.”
“As per the Fiji Bureau of Statistics numbers, inflation stood at 3.6 percent in January 2024, lower than the 5.1 percent recorded at the end of last year. This means the rate of increase in prices have slowed compared to December last year.”
“This 3.6 percent inflation rate is based on the 2014 Consumer Price Index (CPI) weights and FBOS has already developed the 2019 CPI weights which will be released from later this year.”
“In terms of the increase in VAT, we need to understand that when we came into Government it was necessary to take an urgent control on our debt level. This was also the people’s mandate for us.”
Prof Prasad said the FijiFirst Government’s economic philosophy of spending more by ever increasing borrowings increased our national debt from around $3 billion to over $9 billion.
“This was unsustainable and we were on a verge of a debt crisis with far severe pain and suffering.”
“So when we came into Government, we had to decisively deal with this mess that was left for us. Just like when you are sick you need to take some bitter medicine otherwise you will need a major surgery or risk your life.”
“As a kind and caring government, the Coalition has mitigated increase in VAT through various measures. We have raised the number of VAT-free items and basic goods to 22 including prescribed medicine.”
“We have reduced import duties on meat like chicken and lamb. We have removed debt burden of more than 23,000 students on TELS by writing off over $650 million in education loans.”
“We have for the last two school years provided $200 to every child in primary and secondary schools from families with an income of less than $50,000 per annum as back to school assistance. The social protection budget was increased by $52.5 million.”
“On the other hand, the Labour Party Leader, by joining the military regime as its interim Finance Minister in January 2007, destroyed the dreams of over 18,000 active cane growers at that time when the $350 million European Union grant was lost.”
“As the regime’s Finance Minister, he told the people of Fiji to learn to live with high food and fuel prices. He refused to reduce duty on fuel. He refused to raise the income tax threshold to help the low income earners.”
“Worst of all, Chaudhry pocketed at least a few million million dollars (AUD$1.5m) raised in the name of the poor, which he incredibly claimed were to resettle him and his family in Australia after the May 2000 coup.”
“He was eventually convicted on breaching the Exchange Control Act and fined $1 million for keeping the money in overseas bank accounts and not declaring it as income.”
Prof Prasad went on to say, “A person guilty of dishonesty should take a look at himself in the mirror instead of lying about the conduct of the Coalition Government.”
