1. BRP is unsustainable because it represents 25% of the budget (2026). Whilst it's true that the BRP has been used as an electoral weapon in at least three general elections one must not forget that the economy is about 2.5X smaller than what the 15% flat tax and other unsustainable tax structures since 2006 were supposed to generate. So if we divide by 2.5 we get roughly a very manageable 10% which going forward will even decrease with an average management of the economy.
2. Our free public health system is a very heavy burden for the state so that we'll need to find solutions in the future (2026). Our public health system has for all intents and purposes crashed. Rs18.5 billion was set aside for it in the 2025/26 budget which represents only 2.3% of GDP. Seychelles budgeted 5% of GDP for the same item. Do the math. Don't forget that our economy is 2.5X smaller than what Sithanen had forecasted.
3. BRP targeting is almost inevitable otherwise there will come a time when there will be no money to pay any BRP to anyone (2026). Navin Ramgoolam has used the same argument which we've debunked again recently in Preokipasion Sitwayin.
4. Is this why I have joined politics and how will I look pensioners in their eyes (2026)? How did it go last year when people who were going to turn 60 did not get their BRP? You should also look in their eyes and explain to them why you think a crashing public health system is a very heavy burden.
5. It's a budget that sets the stage for growth (2026). Nope. We're going to be stuck in what for Mauritius are very low growth rates as abusive IPP contracts are likely not to have been renewed at reasonable terms because otherwise government would have used this information as a genuine selling point. There are also other factors preventing a much higher growth rate.
6. There are two ways of increasing the revenues of the state. One is to cut expenses like pensions, the other is to increase revenues through growth (2026). You likely meant reducing the deficit and eventually reducing the debt/GDP ratio. But there are more ways of reducing the deficit including introducing a wealth tax, reducing wastage, merging parastatals and selling participation in state assets. While we certainly don't want government to sell ownership in government assets, a wealth tax is overdue given the mess the unsustainable tax structure for the past twenty years has put Mauritius into. We can also reduce the deficit by eliminating the abusive IPP contracts as this will make our economy grow faster. Ask Germany about this point if you're having trouble understanding it.
7. We used to produce 700,000 tons of sugar a long time ago but now we produce 200,000 to 225,000 tons. We should be able to increase our sugar production (2026). Sugar weighs only about 0.5% of our economy which means that it's been dead for a long time. No amount of money will revive it. It did get a gift of Rs 5 billion in 2007. That was pure wastage.
8. The best way to help a poor person is to give him a good job. This will give him dignity (2026). And what exactly does stealing the BRP and throwing thousands into poverty do? Or concreting agricultural lands that puts him out of the real estate market for good?
9. Last year we were at the edge of a cliff. We took some difficult decisions. Today we can breathe a little better (2026). As we've shown several times there were plenty of things that government could have done to improve public finances instead of stealing the BRP of our old folks.
10. Two of the areas where lack of planning and investment has been severe over the past 10 years have been in water and electricity (2026). Not 10 years, but 20. Tell us how many kms of leaking pipes have been changed each year since 2005 and how much did the CEB invest in extra power generation over the same period? You're also awfully quiet on the abusive IPP contracts that have been killing our economy and international competitiveness for more than two decades. Three of them were due for renewal between December 2024 and September 2025. An update would be nice.
11. Mansoor who was in a room filled with brilliant minds of this country told us to target a 6% growth rate so that we can reach 4.7%-5% which in 2050 will get us to half where Singapore [GDP per capita] is otherwise if we target 4.7% we'll get only 3% (2026). Mansoor was a predominant figure of the Sithanen reforms which were supposed to get us 8% growth with a country-ruining flat tax of 15%. After 20 years of that poison we got only 3.3% average growth. So how come he's in that room packed with our brilliant minds? By the way can we have the footage of the deliberations of that group of people? Also it is quite surprising that you stayed in that room given that you don't master even the basic stuff. Speaking about Singapore, in 2021 it had a GDP per capita that was about 9X ours. Two main factors explain a lot of the abyss between the two tigers.
12. Government had options one being to increase VAT (2026). There was absolutely no reason to increase a regressive tax like VAT. As the premise on which our tax structure was flattened in 2006 was that we would get 8% growth but ended up with 3.3% it makes sense to make those who didn't deliver pay and that would be corporates and wealthy individuals.
13. The PM chose the option which is less painful for most people (2026). Can you remind us how many people benefited from the reduction in the fair share contribution in the 2025/26 budget? And while you're at it how many people have been affected by the cruel and completely unnecessary postponement of the age of eligibility for the BRP last year and the means targeting of the BRP in the 2026/27 budget?
14. We are making the national cake bigger and increasing GDP per capita (2026). We need to be careful in using GDP per capita as it suffers from the same problem of any average that is it says little on how the cake is distributed.
15. You can either make the same people pay more tax or make more people pay some tax. When you're making the cake bigger you're making more people pay some tax (2026). You're either lying through your teeth, unaware how the economy works, have not been told that the VAT threshold was lowered by 50% in the 2025/26 budget, oblivious to the fact that government had removed many people from the tax net in last year's budget or some combination of all four.
16. DFIs are not allowed to use a financial centre which is not investment grade (2026). Not too long ago you said on a radio show that a senior German official told you in a conference in Africa that they had stopped using Mauritius because there's a perception that we're a tax haven. Hopefully you understood that the German was trying to be polite because would you believe one second that they did not carry out a thorough assessment of Mauritius? And who's stupid enough to believe that we're not a tax haven?
17. We have to stay the course even if there's a lot of critics because we're doing what's good for the country something which the population will eventually realise (2026). The population has already realised that you're out of your depth and is looking forward to getting recall elections so that they throw incompetents like you out of parliament as soon as possible.
18. We need to export more so that there's less pressure on our rupee (2026). We should rather import a lot less. This is easy to do. We can legislate so as to force sugar estates to grow food instead of concreting agricultural lands. Especially given that our food security is as good as Saudi Arabia's.
19. We won't be able to get any growth as long as we have labour shortages (2026). There's a lot of unemployment and underemployment in Mauritius. If we provide opportunities to them we'll get a nice growth. We'll get an even better growth rate if abusive IPP contracts don't exist anymore.
20. I come from the private sector. If you don't bring results there you could be sacked (2026). Kindly explain to us what kind of results the senior management at the IPPs which have been ripping the population for more than 20 years with very abusive contracts bring month in month out.
No comments:
Post a Comment