Prayag Statements That Don't Survive A Fact-Check

 1. A budget is a country's moment of truth where illusions meet numbers (2026). Nope. The budget is a series of announcements some of which may not find their way into the Finance Act and fewer still implemented. There can also be a fair amount of creative accounting as we have seen in several of the budgets of the past 20 years. 

2. This year's budget more than ever will be a showdown between the reality of numbers and past practices (2026). The economic model of the recent decade of MSM rule is the same model implemented between 2006 and 2014 when Navin was at the helm.

3. This year's budget will say clearly what Mauritius can still afford, what it cannot finance anymore and what must be corrected before it's too late (2026). No guarantee about this as in last year's budget the BRP was deemed unsustainable but the government was planning 14 billion rupees into the construction of new roads when we already have way too many. It also didn't highlight the fact that the 15% flat tax and other unsustainable tax structures never delivered the 8% growth promise. And government didn't update the population on the renewal of the abusive IPP contracts.

4. For too long government has overspent with little regard to economic prudence (2026). The main problem of the last 20 years is the implementation of a low and for the most part flat tax structure which has basically ruined Mauritius. The economy is about 2.5X smaller than what the low tax structure was supposed to generate. It was not either exactly prudent to kill our savings culture so as to finance an unsustainable tax structure.

5. The cost of overspending has never been presented (2026). Since 2006 we've constantly updated the population on how they were being taking for a ride and how the unsustainable tax structure was ruining Mauritius. All of this was backed by numbers. For instance between 2006 and 2024 there has been a GDP shortfall of more than 6 trillion rupees.

6. The impact of overspending by government can be seen in the debt/GDP ratio, deficits and depreciation of the rupee (2026). For one the GDP is 2.5X smaller as expected so we need to take all ratios that use it with a big grain of salt. Budget deficits are also due to a drastically smaller economy. Trade deficits are the results of several terribly bad policy decisions. One such decision are the abusive IPP contracts that have pulled Mauritius down for more than 20 years.

7. We need to distinguish between blind austerity and budgetary responsabilty (2026). At the beginning of his toxic reforms Sithanen said that we need to make two years of sacrifice and then we'll be ok. Killing our savings culture is not what you would call a sacrifice. It's rather sheer economic suicide unless you're aware of an economy that thrives after its savings culture has been assassinated. As a matter of fact last year's budget was precisely that: blind austerity. You steal the pension of our old folks but at the same time you announce that you'll spend 14 billion rupees in the new roads. And you keep mum about the renewal of three abusive contracts but during 2025 you disconnect 21,000 subscribers from the CEB grid.

8. It's not about to abandon the most vulnerable or to destroy the welfare state (2026). This is precisely what has been going on since 2006. For a start have a look at how national income was distributed across the population for the five years which ended in 2012. And it looks as if you haven't heard what Jyoti Jeetun has been saying for a while. Namely that our public health system is a very heavy burden and that solutions will need to be found.

9. A state that spends without counting will end up not being able to help the most vulnerable (2026). The problem with the Mauritian state is that it embarked on a ruinous path since 2006 and this has caused some astronomical underspending including on our welfare state.

10. The next budget is going to be difficult but governing is not about buying social peace with public money (2026). Social peace is a top priority and all governments buy it with public money because having people rioting in the streets is not conducive to economic growth. Ask countries in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. Surely public money should not be spent paying a 35% return to IPPs that don't take any risks.

Sis Kolos Travayis Ki Pa Ti Pu Vot Pu Navin

Maurice Curé. Listwar Parti Travayis (Ptr) kumans ar li. En lorea kin al apran medsin langleter, kin develop en bon klientel parmi ban nanti kan lin returne an 1913 me ki pa ti ditu kontan, Selvon ek Teelock rakont nu, kot so pei ti ete. Li ti ena osi ban klian dan vilaz e sa fer li trakase move kalite pu lasante travayer ler li truv zot leta. An 1934 li dan Konsey Guvernmantal kot pu so promie diskur li deman reprezantasion travayer dan sa konsey la e rekonesans muvman sindikal. Sitiasion telman dan dife ki sis mwa pa gayn letan pase e ala li pe fer ban nuvo revandikasion: pansion vieyes e ameliorasion kondision ban travayer lindistri sikriyer. 

Lagazet tret li de kominist e li perdi dan eleksion Zanvie 1936. Me li pa dekuraze u perdi letan. Mwa swivan, 88 banane zordi, le 23 Fevriye 1936 li organiz en miting dan San de Mars ansam ek Moutou, Sahadeo ek ankor pu fond pli gran parti dan listwar Moris. Ban miting e rasanbleman Ptr se ban seans pu edik ban gro laful dimun vit lor ban zafer estra inportan pu zot byinet e pu kre en vag progresis. Curé viktim telman represion ki li fayit e demisione depi Ptr an 1941. En lot kolos lamem pu pran labar.

General Secretaries of the Labour Party

When Kalyanee Juggoo resigned as General Secretary (GS) of the Labour Party recently Arvin Boolell wondered whether with her 13 years in that post she hadn't been the longest-serving. I knew she did not. Indeed as Chart 1 shows, Kher Jagatsingh had been GS between 1961 and 1982 or for around 21 years. Furthermore, a quick Google search revealed that Kalyanee had served since 2013 so that she had been in that position for about 9 years.  

Chart 1. Kalyanee cannot be the longest-serving GS.

Meet the WUT

That’s how people will call the Sir Harold Walter Urban Terminal if the VUT is renamed to honour the memory of one of our land’s finest but completely forgotten sons – SHW built our first and some say still our best motorway which also makes him associated with our transportation network. It’s true he was a pillar of the Labour Party (pictured above with a famous colleague) and we don’t have a Labour PM right now. But we know what happened when we last had one. He actively tried to rewrite the history of the LP and of Mauritius, placing a sycophant at the head of the MBC with a contract that had even a “clause de conscience”. And two of the three Presidents he nominated were not personalities from the oldest political party of Mauritius.

Mauritius Doesn't Need the Metro Express to Go Bankrupt

Because the Sithanen flat tax has been taking care of that. In quite a splendid manner actually. As we've pointed out recently the associated toohrooh has already reached a trillion rupees. Which is equivalent to several years of GDP. Anybody who has studied up to at least Form III understands that continually growing at less than 4% -- that too in depreciated rupee terms -- instead of the 8% you promised will land you in very deep trouble pretty quickly.

We've seen our PM make a surprising visit to India before presenting his budget. The implementation rate in the public sector has slowed down. If the Metro Leger has been replaced by a watered-down version it's not because we have so much money that we don't know what to do with it. A special purpose vehicle has appeared and the debt ceiling will be amended. What do all these signs tell us?

Plenty to Learn From US Election Process

Americans know pretty much what to expect from the person they will elect as President of the world's second largest economy today. And that's thanks in no small measure to the candidates thoroughly discussing the main planks of their plans and to several independent groups of people scrutinising them. If it's Trump they are aware that the extreme version of trickle-down economics he's proposing – a flat tax of 15% – would add 5 trillion dollars to the US national debt, make 3.5 million people lose their jobs and potentially throw the economy into a recession. If it's Clinton the economy should keep on growing from the middle out and that too without a Great Wall that Mexico would be made to pay for. The fiscal policies of these candidates are also consistent with the DNA of their parties: Democrats don't believe and rightly so that tax cuts for the wealthy work while the Republicans do.

Une nécessaire réforme de notre système politique: A Note

I have a few comments with respect to the points made in this article which appeared today.

1. We are prisoners of the two-party system that the FPTP generates. We don't have a two-party system here but most elections have been dominated by two alliances each made up of two or more parties. Our political system has been quite dynamic if we look at the weights of the different parties on the political chessboard over time and in the different alliances at voting time. It has also been renewing itself. Maybe not at the speed we would have wished though.

Ramgoolam Vague About Labour DNA

A week ago he said it's made up of unity, development and social justice. For sure these are important values but they are a bit too vague. But first let's see how he did according to these values.

Pretty average in the unity department if the end result of three mandates (especially the last two) has been to bring Mauritius closer to an overcrowded barracoon. Granted that Manou Bheenick -- picked by Ramgoolam after 18 long months -- made us quite proud and united as far as the external value of our currency goes while he was calling the shots at the Central Bank.

Eski Sithanen Enn Kosmar Pu Popilasyon?

Kestyon bet, non? Kosmar disparet ler uver lizye. Parkont lanfer so bann politik ekonomik kontinye fer u lavi vinn margoz pandan buku banane. Sithanen finn reponn a sa kestyon la resama avek kat kestyon. Anu analyz zot.

1. Linn dimande si pa enn politisyen de long dat kuma Ramgoolam ti pu pran enn risk vinn tir li depi kot liete si li tienn kosmar. Anfet Ramgoolam pe pran enn mari gro risk reprezant Sithanen kom minis de finans apre sa bann gro gro dal ki linn fane ant 2005 ek 2010 (nu tu finn remarke ki lalyans pep tuni pann gagn sa kantite plis dimunn ki lalyans papa piti dan miting nasyonal le duz oktob). Me kan de parmi trwa pli gran parti zwen sa amenn suvan bann gro skor dan elekyson: sa lalians la gagn lao 50 siez. Me pa tu letan (ek sa eleksyon ki pe vini la pa enn eleksyon ordiner ditu sa). An 2005 Ramgoolam ti gagn enn viktwar istorik ler enn gro parti ti bat 2 gro parti.

Anfet telma Sithanen ti fann dal kom minis de finans -- avek so kamwad Ali Mansoor -- ki Ramgoolam finn bizin ed Pravind Jugnauth eli dan No. 8, donn enn segon manda prezidan SAJ pu finalman fer lalians ek MSM ek pa donn tiket Sithanen. Parksi Ramgoolam ti kone si ti donn li tiket kitfwa Ramgoolam mem ti pwal manz feyaz. Sithanen pann gagn tiket ar Berenger usi byen ki Berenger -- papa kominalis syantifik sa do -- ti dir ki Ramgoolam finn fer fos ek bann Tamul-morisyen parski Berenger kone ki elekter pa kas latet ar kominote bann faner dal.