Alarm bells have been triggered in senior business circles about a little known aspect of the Budget announced on Friday in which iTaukei will evidently be able to have access to tax free incentives for business ventures.
In an interview with the Fiji Times on Saturday, the Minister for iTaukei Affairs, Ifereimi Vasu, said he was “very happy” with the increased allocation to his Ministry of $38.3 million. But it’s what he said about incentives to encourage the development of iTaukei businesses that has sent eyebrows sky high and requires an urgent explanation from the Finance Minister, Biman Prasad.
Quote: ” One big incentive that was given that wasn’t always there is tax-free incentives to iTaukei business owners. Equally exciting is that government will pay the interest for iTaukei businesses that take loans from the Fiji Development Bank or Merchant Finance”. Unquote.
Oh really? If this is true, it is an astonishing proposition that clearly hasn’t been part of any national debate about the country’s future economic direction. Taken at face value, it means that Fijian taxpayers as a whole will be paying the interest on loans taken out by iTaukei for business purposes. And where, pray tell, is the electoral mandate for that?
If any citizen wants to take out a loan to start or develop a business, the onus must surely be on them to finance those loans in full. It is not for the “government” – ie everyone else – to pick up the tab for anything in relation to the servicing of those loans or carry any of the risk of those businesses going bust.
To do so places an intolerable burden on the nation’s taxpayers and undermines the whole notion of free enterprise. Any business – no matter who is involved – should be required to succeed or fail on its merits. And the notion that one community in Fiji should expect the rest of the nation to pay the interest on its business loans is unacceptable.
For people old enough to remember the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji in the mid-nineties, the Minister’s comments have revived some disturbing memories. The NBF literally became a piggy bank for much of the iTaukei elite, including some individuals who are still prominent in national life. And by the time it finally went under, its total losses amounted to some $220-million or 8 per cent of the nation’s GDP.
“Never again” has been the catch-cry about the Fijian people ever being subjected to the same rorts. We need urgent clarification about the post-budget comments by the Minister for iTaukei Affairs. And if there really is a plan for the nation as a whole to pick up the interest on iTaukei business loans, it needs to be throttled at birth. Because it is completely irresponsible and must not be allowed to stand.
Everyone wants more indigenous businesses to succeed and some are already doing so. But they will not succeed by being mollycoddled or put on the public teat. They need to meet the same standards of successful businesses anywhere, especially when it comes to financial discipline, and we already know from bitter experience in Fiji that giving them special status is no guarantee of success. Far from it.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of this Budget is the way it reinforces the notion of government as the dispenser of largesse, whether it is payments to striking miners or making up the losses of retirees hit by changes to the FNPF. The Coalition baulked at lifting the minimum wage to a level that would genuinely make a difference to low income earners but has established itself as a cash cow for its core supporters, especially among the iTaukei, and anyone with a gripe against the former government.
Rather than preach restraint and the need for the nation to start living within its means, our MPs have not only enriched themselves with their emoluments increases but are fuelling a general expectation in the community that government is like an ATM that never stops giving.
It is a mindset at the root of many of Fiji’s problems. But to expect every taxpayer to finance the business aspirations of individual iTaukei by picking up the interest on their loans is a bridge too far. Quite apart from being unfair in favouring one ethnic group, it risks creating a bottomless pit of liability that the nation simply cannot afford. And we have 220-million reasons to say “no”.
So I guess everything in Fiji is about Native Fijians now.
About time! But not to be entertained for too long. Not ALL i Taukei are bad.
And if that wasn’t enough, Biman declared that any one by Fijian identification can return home to Fiji without a passport and open a business. What are these people thinking and doing? They are so naive to think Fijians don’t have criminal and gang related convictions.
Biman says he is told by NZ Fiji Business Council President that people want to come home. Coming home doesn’t mean we open a floodgate for criminals as well.
Whether i-taukei or not, pay for your loan and any related charges.
Fiji taxpayers should not be meeting these expectations and expenses for any entitled and freeloader person.
We all work hard to look after our businesses and families. We not here to give handouts.
People need to learn the basics of running a business and paying taxes, loans, etc.
This is why the i-taukei failed in sugarcane farming. They thought it was all easy to make money.
Some never learn.
This government talked about freebies a lot and now they back to it themselves.
Each time they sink lower.
It’s a very sad day for my beloved birth country. To me this, if true, is a far cry from democracy which this coalition claims to be. To me this seems to be like the priciples of the old British Colonials” DIVIDE AND RULE”. It looks like the Coalition is trying to cement the iTaukei vote to stay in power beyond 2026 by giving them freebies. Be careful BAIMAAN if you are not careful, and this does eventuate it will come back bite your BUM….AAN !! Are we headed towards the way Ethiopia went ?
Sense of entitlement plus freebies equals the ruin of Fiji. It would be reasonable to offer some incentives to local businesses with stand out ideas that are regulated as progress payments tied to specific bench marks that are closely audited. But free rein and race based is a disaster.
Prof. Prasad verbatim in his budget address “Indigenous Businesses” – I wonder if it means businesses with shareholders registered with TLTB LOU to qualify?
I wonder what is the criteria to be considered “iTaukei”?
Simple get your name in the BK and register the whole family and then you become a “iTaukei”
The self-serving arrogance, greed and theft by this coalition government reveals almost none are Christians, else they would be terrified of doing harm to others.
Galatians 6:7-8 New King James Version (NKJV)
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
What everyone seems to forget is that this is Fiji. Fijians do things the Fijian way – not the vulagi way. The vulagis should stay out of this. This is our country and we will do as we please, we will make laws as it suits, we will change laws depending on the circumstances and who is involved, we will intepret the laws as we see fit at the time and to suit the purpose at the time. There is no need for consistency because this is Fiji. Our traditions and culture are flexible. Vulagi laws do not fit our purpses. only a vulagi religion is ok.
We are the chosen people from the lost tribe of Israel, we are in the process of sorting out whether we are Christians or Israelites, but that is our problem. That is the only vulagi thing we will allow in our lives.
So if a nutty professor has given us free money to abuse, that is our god-given right. Vulagis stay out of it.
Yes, vulagi only exist to pay for it all.
Well Graham, the Vulangi’s are migrating in hordes and it is only a matter of time before there will not be enough taxpayers to pay for the interest on iTaukei loans. Introducing natives into business has been tried many a time without success. I remember when share farming was tried in the sugar cane industry but it was the vulangi who ended up doing all the work.
Look across the Pacific, from Australian aborigines to all the Pacific Islands ,the people do not have any business acumen.
Well that is a given. Has been since the Girmityas arrived.
And why should we pay interest. That is a vulagi invention!!!!! 🙂
These things do not apply to us. We are Fijian.
If you are a lost tribe Israel then you’re not a native of Fiji. Your country is Israel. You have no right to be in Fiji. Go back to where you came from. The true natives of Fiji are the plants and animals. They were in Fiji before anyone else.
Yes, we will stay out of it.
Let’s see how you go when the vulagis no longer give you money, budget support and loans.
And Fiji will slide into bankruptcy if the vulagis from Australia, New Zealand and other nations decide to go elsewhere for holidays or vacations.
Close tour eyes.
Let us pray.
Let the thieving begin.
God bless us all.
The biggest financial crisis in the histroy of Fiji was the collapse of The National Bank of Fiji. Why? who benefited the most ? Why?
This history should not be repeated
Govt might as well pass a law banning all interest as the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran preach. Interest is haram (sinful) and for govt to pay the interest of all taukei businesses benefits only the banks.
There are other discriminatory measures in the budget as one goes through the details.
Whilst the MPs are being further rewarded with a duty free vehicle (irrespective of size and emissions, no doubt fuel guzzlers – so much for the climate change rhetoric!)), the duty free allowances for travelers, mainly citizens returning after shopping from their travel destinations) are reduced from $2000 to $1000. This would not even get you a decent phone or laptop!
The special incentives now being awarded legally to I-Taukeis, thanks to the NFP, aligns with Biman’s attitude to the Indo Fijian voters who, he has stated publicly, are NOT credited for his election to Parliament.
So I guess he is now showing the non i-taukeis his 2 fingers!
Did we also see him profusely apologizing (at post-budget breakfast) to the business for the dire effect the 50c increase will have on them and how they could turn to government in case of hardship. The rest of us consumers can jump!
Hopefully, conflicts of interest, transparency and so on will be addressed. Because, as a known businessman, the Minister should not apply for and benefit from the tax free incentive. But, no worries and just like Lynda and Rob, Vulagi Jason will do the strategizing for the Minister and benefit himself from the incentive more than the non-Vulagis.
Questions should be asked in next budget as to how many loans were approved and how successful the businesses turned out. Because I bet you my FNPF funds nothing will succeed if one does not work hard, and takes advantage of these types benefits . You do not get happiness or success on the sweat and tears of others. It has been proven from 1987.
And next is the calls coming in from politicians to financial institutions regarding approval of certain loans left, right and centre. I cry for the workers, taxpayers who have to bear this $hit show. It is only to a certain level that one can tolerate.
How many interest-free “loans” will be for fibreglass boats and powerful engines to be used for drug (weed!) transportation. The loans are not just going to be interest-free but free “loans” NBF-style. No collateral, no eligibility requirements (other than the accident of birth), no late or missed repayments to worry about (the matanitu will pay all [18%?] interest), no credit rating, previous/current unpaid debts should give you additional special prefernce. Sega ni leqa naita. Come one come all, bring your buckets! Manna of heaven is here! Youth groups, musical bands, cultural groups, lost tribe(s), found tribes, and no tribes, all get in line. Heck even if you are a declared bankrupt and/or convict. If both, even better. Just come!
And all itaukei working in vulagi farms 🚜 in oz and nz come back, for this initiative that will free free set you free! (There has to be a song in there somewhere!)
This would all be outrageously funny if it was not so very real. How many members of parliament, the many ministers and assistant ministers will take advantage of these “loans” on $220k incomes?
And buying duty-free cars with such a loan, ‘guarantee’ loans for as many kaivata as possible, get kick backs, invest with convicted criminals (wait, ginger farming has already taken that one!), set up SME at $50,000 a pop. What could go wrong?
An overtly discriminatory policy, teaching our own that no hard work is required to get money as long as you come from the right people.
Yet another example (as if we needed more) that we are a nation of fools led by idiots.
And a sad indictment of what we have become as a nation in a short 18 months. We are being led blind-folded to the financial cliff edge by a lying bottle collector, his lying jungalee ponga professor and the erstwhile F(insert remaining letters) review committee.
When the NBF collapsed there were huge queues outside all the branches of NBF all over the country, mostly hard working poorer iTaukei who had trusted their local bank with pride with their life savings , but now they were desperately trying to get it out but it was too late , all the money was gone . It was heart breaking. The governor of the bank gave out one loan for over $1 million on the security of a trumpet! History has a habit of repeating itself.
Some need a leg up (or two) more than others. The Bureau of Stats has identified that the iTaukeis are living under the poverty line and make up an insignificant part of the commercial sector. So, kudos to Government for doing something about it. Not just dishing out the usual “all equal” policy, but doing something to get an equitable outcome.
You keep on harping on about NBF. That is history and we have learned from it. Govt just needs to make sure proper governance is in place.
The Minister probably misspoke. It might be interest subsidy, which has been happening through facilities at the Fiji Development Bank for a long time as support for specific sectors, support for recovery from natural disasters and the pandemic. Only this time it’s to an identified disadvantaged economic grouping.
I have 220-million reasons to “harp on” about the NBF. The Coalition’s standards of governance are no better a quarter of a century on and this is another debacle in the making. I suppose you think that the Minister for iTaukei being in a business relationship with a convicted Chinese gangster is OK. But no-one can have confidence that public money will be spent wisely under Rabuka Mark 2 any more than under Rabuka Mark 1.
So according to Under Kava AG, the reason for the iTaukeis living under poverty is someone else’s fault even when they own more than 95% of the land. The previous government was giving the lease monies under equal distribution system which the new elites have changed, with a lot of enthusiasm and exuberance from the idiots who voted them in.
The NBF is not just history and in the past, and nothing has been learnt from it. The idiot iTaukeis have not learnt that the man who raped the country 37 years ago and who has done exactly nothing for them in all that time apart from bringing grief – and they still think he can change things?? Surely one would have to be utterly stupid. If not what else are they? And who is to blame for all this??? The referee?
Kudos? And no, clearly the current pap leadership has not learned, especially rabuka who was on watch and was the cause of all the rot, then till now. The collapsed disfunctional state system of poor lazy service administration, broken hospitals, government schools, roads etc set in from 1987. Fiji will only progress when the itaukei is ably led, by their chiefs and lotu.
“A donkey will always remain a donkey, you cannot change it into a horse”.
They tried that with our PM but it did not work after 37 years. It will never work.
I think we should stick to pretending we are God’s chosen people, and that we really belong in Israel. We do not seem to be yet aware that Israel is not a Christian country but we will vouch for Israel anyway. But those who went on the pilrimage of the Feast of the Terbanacle, (which is a Jewish Festival), could not get out of there fast enough with their tail between their legs from the Holy Land when the fireworks started.
I am looking forward to the movie “The Great Escape from Tel Aviv on Fiji Airways – Based on a True Story”.
Remember the song and dance when the escapees arrived at Nadi Airport?
It should be a good moofie – as Arnold Schwarznegger would say.
What I am looking forward to is the pilgrimage for this year in October. Only about 4 more months to go!!!! Or will they find an excuse not to go!!!
Don’t worry yaar about nbf (‘water under the bridge’) or 3m FJ Airways debt —the interest free “loans” will take of 3m. Peanuts man! You people jealous of us becos we own 95% of cawuntey and we the lost tribe and jehova’s chosen cawuntry. Chap karo!
Since you mentioned 95% of the land not country was wondering why the iTaukei’s
didn’t developed their land. The “itaukei’s can be millionaires if the development is well structed and supervised.
Look at the prime timber, mahogany and the pine industry can contribute to the vanua.
Huge high tech agro- farming are just a few. On site small scale production factories can process vegetables, canning will be so easy. Large scale production of all types of chilies which has large market in Hawaii.
During colonial era our bananas were exported to NZ and the industry died once the British pulled out Now we have such a lousy bananas sold at suva market.
the Kava industry can be boosted when the land made available to the Itaukei’s
The pawpaws can be exported to the south pacific nations as well to encourage interest in planting. I can go on and on but lets think of this for time being.
Native Fijians will never succeed in the business world unless they learn how to run businesses.
Providing tax incentives and interest free finance DOES NOT help. In fact, it’s more detrimental to the process of learning to run a business. It just increases their sense of entitlement and they wont appreciate the value of money. As the saying goes, ‘easy come easy goes”. When you sweat for your money, you will appreciate the value of it more. If it was given for free, you are more likely not to care as much.
Such incentives have been tried many times in Fiji in the last 50 years and all have failed miserably.
Fijians will be better off in business in the long run if Government uses the fund to provide business training to Fijians. Teach Fijians about the fundamentals of business concepts such separating business affairs from personal affairs, record keeping, ensuring the fundamental of the business is profitable, cashflow management, financial discipline, understanding markets and economy etc. And together with some simple HARD WORK, voilà!
I am sick of hearing leaders justifying Fijian lack of business participation to it being a foreign concept to Fijians and the need to level the playing field.
Christianity is a foreign concept to Fiji. Yet Fijians are very good at it. There are churches, preachers, pastors and ministers everywhere you look.
Rugby 7s is a foreign concept. We are brilliant at it without the need to apply special rules to native Fijian teams.
So why should the rules be changed for the native business people. It’s a universal concept. Same rules apply everywhere.
And lastly, all these people advocating for “solesolevaki” concept to ensure Fijians succeed in business, please stop. It does not work in todays Fijian society. It worked in village settings in the past where there was no money involved. Villagers did solesolevaki for communal projects and still planted, gathered and hunted for their own families.
Majority of communal business project today fail due to lack of transparency and accountability of people running it. Also applies to most formal Co-operative entities. This normally ends up with more divisions to native Fijians when members accuse office bearers of misappropriation.
If native Fijians want to pool resources for capital, there is a vehicle that already exist with more robust governance structure. Its called the South Pacific Stock Exchange. Solesolevaki for your capital, then float a company.
But please no tax free and interest free loans.
Bro, they already did that. Fijian Holdings Ltd is the largest iTaukei company on the SPX and interference from Kai has stifled its progress for 16 years until 2022. Even to the point of opening it up to non-iTaukeis and getting a non-Fiian to lead it. It’s now reverted back to normal so the new team including the CEO (who was supposed to be CEO 10 years ago) back to put things right. Slowly, we will see more type of entities coming up, all in Fiji time eh.
I wrote about two issues. One is the process to getting iTaukeis to be empowered to be business savvy. It should not include giving them handouts. It entails training.
Second issue is that they need to move away from informal communal based business (like Youth Groups, Co-Ops) which lacks proper governance structures and accountability. Where I suggested capital pooling into a public listed company which has more robust governance structures.
Fijian Holdings Limited only benefit its current shareholders. And it doesn’t teach shareholders anything about business. They are just passive shareholders. FHL was gifted a $20m grant from government.
What has stopped iTaukei individuals or groups in the last 50 years from conducting successful businesses?
NOTHING.
Why are you blaming the Fiji First government or Kai for that matter. What about before they came into power?