Apenisa Waqairadovu 
Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad said the upcoming National Budget will include support for Fijians if global tariff issues continue to affect prices.
Speaking at the Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants, Prof Prasad said the government planned to slightly increase spending.
“We will have to look at a slightly bigger slice of the expenditure towards operational expenditure, which means increasing social welfare, increasing support to our farmers, additional subsidies for increased production, supporting infrastructure revenue, allowing people to spend more money, that may change the expenditure mix a little bit.”
Prof Prasad explained that while Fiji hoped international tariff negotiations would help reduce trade costs, the government is also preparing for the possibility that tensions among major economies might continue.
If that happened, he said the budget would include measures to ease the impact on ordinary Fijians.
“We are not changing and chopping our tax policies, so I want to make this very clear, that any changes we are going to make in the budget will be in relation to compliance, will be in relation to policies that will enhance our participation and cooperation with the taxpayers.”
Prof Prasad also confirmed that the government was not planning to introduce any new taxes or make changes to existing ones.
He said the goal was to ensure that the country’s GDP growth would not be significantly affected.
The 2024–2025 National Budget is scheduled to be announced on June 27.
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