The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Sebastien Pillay, said that the 2023 budget that the Minister responsible for finance, Naadir Hassan, presented last week a policy to damage control and that the LDS government is not sincere.

“Instead of assessing and preparing the basis on which to present their budget, the government has degassed and brought a cake that is not yet finished. Certain places, especially those that you placed, will continue to eat cream while the Creole is on the ground or not. to get nothing,” Honorable Pillay said yesterday when he was giving his answer to the budget presentation for next year.

Honorable Pillay says that the LDS government’s incompetence, and its lack of compassion, has plunged our population into poverty.

He made a comeback that after two years where the LDS government was in power, instead of relieving our people who are in need, they brought a policy where the State prefers to economize on the poor, just to show that they know how to do bloodthirsty politics with them. leaders and IMF.

“When the minister tells us that the government has put 21 million rupees to give children breakfast , it is a source of pride and reward for our sacrifices and we even see LDS politicians clapping their hands, this is sad. It would not be better if our people could afford to give breakfast to their children. When the social safety net goes up by 61.8 million rupees, is there any money left? Isn’t this about elections? Isn’t it true that people are suffering?” Honorable Pillay asked.

It has continued for ten years that the government has lied to the people of Seychellois about how the economy was managed in the past and that this is false.

He says that Seselwa needs to realize that during the last two years there has been a lot of propaganda that has been done to make people believe that the LDS government has inherited a country with an empty trunk and that the measures that have been taken are because of the state that got the country in October 2020, and the US government is responsible for this, but that is completely false.

“Circumstances have been manipulated to tell lies about how the US government was ruining our country’s economy and it is LDS that is now saving our economy. These are liars and just like their campaign about the cost of living, this is just a headache,” Honorable Pillay said.

It is good that we have made it clear that the LDS government will once and for all stop harassing the people of Seychellois.

He says that it is the policies, structures and administrative framework that the US government has put in place that today the LDS government is only used to control the country and that is the truth.

Regarding the country’s financial reserves, Honorable Pillay says that the LDS government has forgotten that since the economic reform in 2008, the US government has ensured that Seychelles has a primary fiscal balance of 2.5%. And every consecutive year, the foreign exchange reserve in the Central Bank is at least 500 million dollars gross and 400 million dollars net .

He said that the Central Bank made a reference in its report on reserves in 2019 that this means an improvement of 8.3%.

“Seychelles has never had a broken carriage, because it has never been empty. The foreign exchange reserve target was continuously exceeded during these years. This was not a government that failed, but rather a government that was building a solid base for our country.”

To continue to demonstrate what he says is the government’s lies, Honorable Pillay also asked Seychelles to note that in April 2020, our reserves were 591 million and the amount of reserves available to the country was 439 million dollars. This means that the country had an equivalent demand for foreign currency for a period of 7.8 months in 2019.

“What all Seychelles needs to understand is that if the US government had not put these policies in place in April 2020, our economy would not have recovered as it is doing today. So when LDS comes to cause a 10% increase as if this is a gift they are giving you, this is false. This is the sacrifice you made before LDS came. The Seychelles economy is here today, thanks to the good foundations that the US government has put in place.

Regarding the cost of living, Honorable Pillay said in his address, the Minister of Finance is telling us that it would have been much higher if the government had not taken the necessary actions. But he says what we know is that the cost of living is very high in Seychelles currently.

“What we know, what we have seen, what we have been told is that the LDS government promised to reduce the cost of living, but today, when the LDS government took over the country, it tells you that the cost of living will never go down. Fodre that we hold this government accountable . Let’s put pressure on him to bring down the cost of living in this country, or let’s ask ourselves whether the LDS government is protecting certain individuals or business sectors that continue to rob our people?” Honorable Pillay asked.

Regarding the salary increase, this will be done through a 10% increase. Honorable Pillay said that the minister made a comeback on Tuesday in his interview with the media that this is normal and that is how the increase needs to be done.

Honorable Pillay said that this means that those who earn more will get more and those who earn less will get less.

“Does LDS raise its voice from 2020, because when the salary increase was proposed on a 5% basis in 2020, LDS blocked and said that everyone needs to be treated the same. Why then did they make all this noise and say that everyone should be treated the same and now they go back on their own words? It is normal for a person who earns 40,000 rupees per month to get an increase of 4,000 rupees per month compared to the driver who is getting 6641.25 rupees today and who will get this 1000 rupee increase for his salary to 7641.25 rupees next year. This means that everyone under 10,000 rupees will get 1000 rupees.

But the worker needs to understand that in addition to what, a worker that when you exhaust all his allowance and his salary becomes 9000 rupees. It means that he will get 900 rupees and a top up of 100 rupees to make that he will get 10,000 rupees. On this 1000 rupees you will need to pay a tax of 217 rupees and 4% Pension Fund. So he will get less than 1000 rupees.

Because then the government did not just say that we are giving a flat of 1000 rupees to all people under 10,000 and we will offset the tax and the Pension Fund which will make sure that people will go home with their 10,000 rupees. The US asks the government to review its offset tax payment formula and the Pension Fund to give these workers a real increase.

Fodre workers also noted that LDS is consolidating the 5% supplementation allowance that was introduced in 2019 when they were trying to block salary increases in the government. If they had not prevented the US government from giving a salary increase in 2019 in the basic salary, today they would not need to consolidate this allowance in the salary of government workers who lost the payment of the 13th month of salary during 2019.

Honorable Pillay says that the US is concerned with such approaches and that the increase will take effect in April 2023 and not in January 2023 if the money is being budgeted.

“We ask that the workers have their salary back-dated since January and this really shows if the government is serious about this increase,” Honorable Pillay said.

Honorable Pillay also lamented the fact that this increase is not for all workers in the private sector because he says that it is the private sector that brings more money and income to the country and it is unfortunate that its workers have been left behind.

He says that his US party is protesting the unemployment of private sector workers and demanding that they should get a ‘ better deal’ .

Regarding the pensioners, Honorable Pillay said that he is making a plea for them because they are not being released under this government and today most of them live on just their pension of 5550 rupees and those who stay in the residence of the elderly need to contribute 1000 rupees.

He says that the old people, the pensioners, the retirees go to the same store as everyone else and the market does not give them a discount because they are 63 years old.

Regarding the new taxes that the government is introducing for hotels, Honorable Pillay says that today we see that the government is going to put a tax on the fees in small and medium hotels in Seychelles. He says this is a tax of 25, 75 and 100 rupees per night in the hotel depending on the number of guests.

He says the introduction of a tax on the sum is like a tax policy that will make us regress on our tax system and will also add more burden on the tax administration.

Honorable Pillay also spoke about the education sector, which he says needs to be straightened out and the well-being of workers, especially teachers, needs to be thoroughly reviewed.

He also said that the government is going to re-introduce income tax by putting a 2% tax on the income of medium and large hotels. This means that in addition to paying TMT, the hotel will also pay another income tax. He says this disfigures the tax system, which makes the business tax once again unfair. It is necessary for the government to do a job to address the problem of transfer pricing immediately in the place where our tax system is.

He also talked about the government’s decision to put a flat tax on the financial sector and said that this proposal will not bring any difference to this sector.

When he spoke about the large investments that the government is proposing to make in capital projects, Honorable Pillay asked if the country is in a crisis like the government is saying whether capital projects should not be controlled to ensure that other government expenditures in salaries and goods and services are given priority.

Source: Seychelles Nation