The Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, appears to be in the thrall of the Fiji Water billionaires, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, in the same way that native chiefs were bought off with chests of worthless baubles by colonisers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
What other explanation is there for his lavish praise for the California couple who are making squillions out of shipping one of the nation’s most precious resources – water – from Fiji to the world yet have been granted a seven-year tax holiday by the Rabuka government? Yes, Fiji Water and infinitely smaller bottled water companies pay no company tax in easily the most astonishing and questionable decision of the Coalition government since it took office 14 months ago.
Incredibly, Sitiveni Rabuka is so gormless that when he opened an upgrade of the Fiji Water plant at Yaqara yesterday (Thursday), he revealed that the total amount of the Resnick’s assistance to Fiji over the past 10 years adds up to a piddling $F17-million or $US7.5-million. Yes, this is what Fiji is getting in return for surrendering the right to extract corporate tax from a company that the Prime Minister himself has revealed is part of a $US 6-billion conglomerate owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick. $US7.5-million over 10 years from a six-thousand-million-US dollar global giant. Sound like a good deal to you?
The parent group calls itself the Wonderful Company. Yes, wonderful for the Resnicks but not so wonderful for the Fijian people. Read the accompanying stories. It all comes from the mouth of the Prime Minister himself, aided and abetted by an equally gormless media that with yesterday’s announcement, again spins the story to Fiji Water’s advantage.
Why has Fiji Water been given a seven year company tax holiday? That’s a question that ought to be on the lips of every Fijian. Because on any reasonable assessment, it is an outrage, whatever the government claims to be deriving from its Water Resources Tax. At a time when the nation is struggling economically and one third of our people live in poverty, Fiji is giving money away to billionaires.
We know that Sitiveni Rabuka went to dinner with the Resnicks at their sprawling Los Angeles estate back in March. The following month, he announced that Fiji Water was sponsoring the Flying Fijians rugby team. Soon after that, the Coalition’s Fiscal Review Committee – chaired by lawyer Richard Naidu, whose company, Munro Leys, has been representing Fiji Water – announced that it was recommending the tax holiday. And it was duly announced by the Minister of Finance, Biman Prasad, in the national budget on June 30.
What’s in it for Fiji? We need detailed explanations please. How is it a good deal when the Prime Minister himself says the benefit to the community amounts to a lousy $17-million over the past 10 years? With a similarly risible discretionary spend in the pipeline from a company that is selling Fiji Water around the world (it is the biggest selling bottled water in America) and is using the nation’s name as its principal marketing tool. Nice for some, huh?
There are some serious questions to be answered about how this deal came about.
1/ What was the quid pro quo for Fiji, the Coalition government or Sitiveni Rabuka himself of awarding Stewart and Lynda Resnick such an outrageously one-sided deal when scores of other companies doing business in Fiji are obliged to pay corporate tax?
2/ Why did the Chair of the government’s Fiscal Review Committee, Richard Naidu, not publicly declare a conflict of interest in recommending a tax holiday for his client? What benefit, if any, has Munro Leys derived from securing this deal for Fiji Water?
Seriously. $F17-million in community development projects in the past decade from a $US 6-billion company making hundreds of millions of dollars from a Fijian national resource and paying no tax? How does that sound to you, Fiji? You pay personal income tax if you earn over $30,000 a year. Fiji Water pays no corporate tax at all.
It used to be that would-be colonisers would descend from their sailing ships carrying chests of beads and mirrors to curry favour with the natives. Now their modern-day economic equivalents descend from their private jets offering to sponsor rugby teams and build the odd community project. But it’s all the same. It’s called E-X-P-L-O-I-T-A-T-I-O-N and Sitiveni Rabuka and the Coalition are enabling it.
Take a look in the cheap mirror you’ve just been gifted, Fiji. More investment at Yaqara to enable Fiji Water to produce more plastic bottles of “earth’s finest water” for export and make squillions more for the Wonderful Company. While other companies pay corporate tax and they don’t.
Yep, more fool you, Fiji. It’s earth’s finest rip-off. And there is nothing wonderful about it at all. Except for them, of course.
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Fiji Water apparently donated 50mil to Israel for genocide ????
No, Stewart and Lynda Resnick have given $US50-million ($F113-million) to an Israeli research facility, part of it for research on sustainable development.
Here’s the story in the Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-725521
There is much misinformation and malicious twisting of facts to suit one’s narrative… This one being an example that Grubsheet was able to correct re the $50M.
Misinformation and misunderstanding is likely a great contributor to the mess we see around us. Absence of reasoned thinking is another.
By the way in the main article by Fiji Village, A Narawa writes that the PM acknowledged the founders of Fiji Water, the Resnicks. The brand Fiji Water was created (founded) by David Gilmour circa 1996…Wakaya Investments ltd etc etc. Just a minor example :
If we cannot get correct facts (lazy journalism) for events that occur in the lifetime of the current generation and within the last 30 years, how can we correctly evaluate the historical framework going back up to a few thousand years that is the crux of the situation in the Israel / Islamic / Arab conflict!!
Resnick – no second guess …..will pour money into Israel. But will extract wealth from other poor nations. Never believe the spin that western nations put on ethics, fairness, ….
Someone said it but reputations have been trashed quicker than you can say “tax holiday”
The people that put this forward and got it past a government that is notorious for not being able to make a decision should hang their heads in shame.
It’s a sell out of Fiji and it’s people of epic proportions.
Apparently even when they did pay tax, it only applied to water extracted over 10 million litres a month. Correct me if I am wrong. But if that is true, even when they were paying tax it was still laughable.
We should be conerned about Fiji Waters tax holiday here in Fiji. What they gave Israel for whatever reason is none of our damn business.
The previous and the present government both sided with Fiji Water. We can only hope that with the next government, we will rid Fiji of the old farts and bring big businesses in line to practice sound commercial principles.
There would definitely be an enquiry into Richard Naidu’s conflict of interest.
See how he suddenly quietened down.
The figures quoted for Fiji’s gain is chicken feed relatively. Obviously there is alot unknown here. I shudder to think that PM was still negotiating using the pre colonial mindset of being wooed by “sound and colour”. Yet landowners are fighting to claim scraps.
My thoughts too about landowners are fighting for scrap that it’s laughable when you know how exploitation has been around since the gullible natives bought into myths and “baubles”
Someone please explain to me how did VAT get increased and tax breaks to billionaires get made?
When does the FISCAL review committee meet because item 1 of the agenda should be to have a long look in the mirror
A famous quote ” the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”
What can you expect from a Fiji led by coup leaders?
We should adopt the German system…tax the very rich companies and individuals. That’s why in Germany you don’t see too many billionaires and wealth is spread right across the populace
When the world asks “How stupid can you get?”
The Fiji Coalition government takes it as a challenge.
Richard Naidu, where are you? People like Richard and Bimaan are proof that there are no honorable men in politics. Many people like myself thought otherwise but I have been disappointed beyond measure. I have been betrayed beyond consolation and I am sure many others feel the same.
I believe there is a dark side to Fiji Water. A take that nobody wants to tell.
Could anyone enlighten me on the following?
1. What is Fiji getting out the Fiji Water deal?
2. Is Fiji Water required to supply water to some villages who don’t have water?
3. Is Fiji Water building recycling plants or funding them?
4. Is the govt providing rubbish bins for plastic to be taken to recycling?
What I have seen is that there is nowhere to take the plastic bottles and they are on the beaches and outer islands in the villages. The govt should have implemented a plan before inundating the beaches. The bottle caps end up in marine life. What is the cost of the marine life vs what Fijians make out of this deal? If the beaches get so bad, tourism will be gone as well. There are other bottle companies that are causing pollution as well. It’s the govt that must provide a means for people to dispose.
5. Is the govt or Fiji water planning to fund education about plastic? Children will teach their parents better habits. Teach the children!
6. Why isn’t the govt providing rain barrels rather than promoting single use plastic bottles. People are not going to apply through WAF.. Govt should set aside money so all villages have access to water.
7. How much did people in govt put in their own pockets on the deal and is that even legal? Who will expose the amounts that certain people took?
8. How does the PM use the word sustainable when speaking about a plastic bottled water brand. A little less cardboard? That’s admirable but the damage is beyond what you will ever be able to fix.
The people are not being educated because to do so would open up a can of worms about how bad this really is for Fiji.
9 Please name all the recycling centers or bins for recycling in Fiji. What is someone on Savu Savu supposed to do with their bottles?
They end up everywhere. Fiji was not ready or set up for this. If the govt cannot get it together then they need to put it on Fiji Water to put in place bins and regular pick ups. Especially after a holiday.
Our aging, inept and naive prime minister and one-time bottle collector so easily seduced and suckered in the palaces of Beverly Hills.