{"id":6032,"date":"2023-06-30T11:52:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T23:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6032"},"modified":"2023-06-30T11:52:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T23:52:11","slug":"fiji-budget-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6032","title":{"rendered":"FIJI BUDGET DAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Budget address in Parliament –\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*It is a tough but fair and balanced budget says Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*Immigration Department needs more efficiency.<\/p>\n

*Fiji is well off its target of renewable energy development. Urgent action needed.<\/p>\n

*Mechanisms being put in to ensure ease of doing business is faster than before<\/p>\n

*Last 10 years Fiji slumped in ease of doing business<\/p>\n

*$50.8m for Office of the Prime Minister<\/p>\n

*RFMF gets $103.1m<\/p>\n

*$183.7m for Fiji Police with 100 new officers. $700,00 for police beat patrol.<\/p>\n

*Registrar of Title gets 30 new employees<\/p>\n

*$5.4m for Ministry of Justice<\/p>\n

*$7m for Auditor General\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

*Foreign Affairs Ministry is allocated $4m for restarting missions Washinton, Malaysia, PNG and set-up in Israel<\/p>\n

*$12.4m for Home Affairs and Immigration<\/p>\n

*$89.8m for the Finance Ministry<\/p>\n

*Local Government Ministry is given $29.4m<\/p>\n

*Housing Ministry gets $25.7m.<\/p>\n

*Rural and Maritime Ministry is allocated $29.1m<\/p>\n

*Ministry of Youth and Sports gets $19.5m<\/p>\n

*Trade, MSME and Communications Ministry gets $116.5m<\/p>\n

*Tourism Fiji gets $7m<\/p>\n

*Lands Ministry gets $30.1.m<\/p>\n

*Fisheries and Forestry gets $41.6m<\/p>\n

*Ministry for Multi-Ethic and Sugar industry gets $51.7m. $49.7 for sugar<\/p>\n

$3m for those properties affected by termites in West and North<\/p>\n

*$22.1m for Waterways<\/p>\n

*Subsidy for weedicides and pesticide for rice, ginger, dalo and casava farmers<\/p>\n

*Agricultural Ministry allocated $95.2m, increase of $37.3m<\/p>\n

*PWD back with a set-up cost of $5m<\/p>\n

*$100.6m for road maintenance<\/p>\n

*Fiji Roads Authority gets $387.6m<\/p>\n

$148.2m for a new Fijian Scholarships<\/p>\n

*However, a bond will be put in a place.<\/p>\n

*All outstanding TELTS debt is being forgiven by the coalition government totaling $650m<\/p>\n

*$53.5m for USP and $43.4 for FNU<\/p>\n

*Back to school support to continue for those on $50,000 or less household income<\/p>\n

*Free educational and transport assistance gets more than $100m<\/p>\n

*Education sector gets highest allocation of $845m<\/p>\n

*$2.5m for kidney dialysis assistance which goes up from $150 to $180<\/p>\n

*$11.6m for nurses\u2019 salaries and overtime<\/p>\n

*Heath Ministry gets $453.8 a $58.7 increase including salaries of new staff which includes nursing assitants and nursing aids<\/p>\n

*$4m for i-Taukei land development<\/p>\n

*Turaga-Ni -Koro allowances increased<\/p>\n

*i-Taukei Ministry gets $38.6m<\/p>\n

*Ex-Servicemen get 15% increase in their allowances<\/p>\n

*More than 1500 Pensioners of FNPF are able to access to government pension allowances<\/p>\n

*Ministry of Women. Children and Social Welfare get $200.2m an increase of $52.5m<\/p>\n

*Minium wage rate to be reviewed<\/p>\n

*Pay review for Civil Servants underway in next 6-9 months<\/p>\n

*FNPF contribution rate back to 18% from January<\/p>\n

*Rewa River water project gets $51.1 to complete works<\/p>\n

*$250.8m for WAF<\/p>\n

*Cut in ministerial travel allowances announced. This also includes cut in the incidental allowances.<\/p>\n

*$200m for health infrastructure<\/p>\n

*Tax incentives for warehouse development removed<\/p>\n

*Changes in Capital Gains Tax structure<\/p>\n

*New and used motor vehicles import excise duty up by 5%<\/p>\n

*Sugar tax in products up to .40c<\/p>\n

*Excise tax on alcohol and tobacco to increase by 5%<\/p>\n

*Departure tax to increase.<\/p>\n

*Coporate tax rates up to 25%<\/p>\n

*Government reduces duties on some food products<\/p>\n

*VAT to increase to 15%<\/p>\n

*As of August 1, there will two rates of VAT with 22 items including prescribed medicines will be zero rated<\/p>\n

*We to invest in our future generations now.<\/p>\n

*We will be making some tough decisions that were side stepped in the past<\/p>\n

*Business as usual cannot continue<\/p>\n

* Expenditure stands at $4.3b and revenue projected at $3.7b. The deficit is 4.8 percent of GDP<\/p>\n

*Debt to GDP ratio likely to go to 79% by next year<\/p>\n

*Remittances to cross $1.2b mark this year<\/p>\n

*Tourism is going great but cannot rely on it alone<\/p>\n

*International economy to have an impact on Fiji<\/p>\n

*Economic projected growth by 8% or even higher this year<\/p>\n

*This is a consultative government<\/p>\n

*After a decade we reconvened the cabinet sub-committee on budget says Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*Rebuilding our future together is the theme of the budget<\/p>\n

*Fiji needs to be seen as a leader which can bring the region together<\/p>\n

*We must be seen keeping our promises with its people and also the region<\/p>\n

*No government should abuse power<\/p>\n

*Begun to rebuild trust with the University of the South Pacific<\/p>\n

*News media is an important tool for information<\/p>\n

*Economic summit was a success says Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*This government values people says Minister<\/p>\n

*We must find money to fix problems sand debt services: Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*We must learn how to avoid the past in the future<\/p>\n

*Water infrastructure is in tatters<\/p>\n

*Lack 800 medical professionals and health infrastructure is in bad shape<\/p>\n

*CWMH does not have a laundry years after a fire<\/p>\n

*Current government inherited a $10 billion debt<\/p>\n

*We need $536m for interest and $516m principal payments for debts<\/p>\n

*It remains mystery on how $120m was spent on Walesi<\/p>\n

*No money was put aside for infrastructure repair<\/p>\n

*COVID wasn\u2019t only to blame for economic demise<\/p>\n

*Last 10 years average economic growth was little over 3%<\/p>\n

*It is a grim state of affairs says Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*Finance Ministry officials ready to meet Opposition MPs post budget announcement<\/p>\n

*Professor Prasad says they will make mistakes but will not hide from it.<\/p>\n

*We must rebuild confidence in our business and productive sectors: Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

*We all have a role to play says Professor Prasad<\/p>\n

Source: FBC news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Budget address in Parliament –\u00a0   *It is a tough but fair and balanced budget says Professor Prasad *Immigration Department needs more efficiency. *Fiji is well off its target of renewable energy development. Urgent action needed. *Mechanisms being put in to ensure ease of doing business is faster than before *Last 10 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiji-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6034,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032\/revisions\/6034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}