
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Kamikamica.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Kamikamica says he will formally lodge a complaint against former Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum with the Office of the Attorney General.
According to Kamikamica, the former Minister for Economy was misleading parliament as he never reported the rebate payment as a budget item therefore it was not approved government expenditure.
During his 2023–2024 National Budget response in Parliament yesterday, Kamikamica says they inherited an outstanding Bill of about $78 million owing to the foreign movie companies.
He says for the next four to five years, the government will be paying $40 million a year in film tax rebates to the companies.
“Be assured, we will honour this debt. The worse fact is that the pay-outs for rebates were never in any budget since the rebates were being paid until this year. So one can argue that the former Minister for Economy was misleading Parliament on this matter.”
Kamikamica also states that some of the film companies have revealed to the current government that the tax rebates were too generous.
We have sent questions to Sayed-Khaiyum for a response.
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