Opposition MP Viliame Gavoka (from left), Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. [Source: Parliament of Fiji/ Facebook]

The Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has clarified that the Financial Transactions Reporting (Amendment) Bill 2022 will not impact the political parties’ donation.

This is after Opposition Member of Parliament Viliame Gavoka claimed that the amendment bill will discourage funding of political parties from overseas.

Gavoka claims parties such as Social Democratic Liberal Party depend on donations from overseas to fund their campaigns.

“ Parties like SODELPA don’t have big money supporting them internally in Fiji. We rely on the LeweniVanua and he raises money through roti parcels, lovo packs and Kaji. We really rely on people overseas to fund our political campaign.”

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says opposition members of parliament live in a conspiratorial world.

“ There is a separate law for the political parties donation which states you can donate to the political party if you are a natural person, not a company but a natural person. You can only give 10,000 maximum every 12 months. You cannot give anything more than that but it can be less than that. You have to be a Fijian citizen or you were a former Fijian citizen.”

The Financial Transactions Reporting (Amendment) Bill 2022 which seeks to amend the Act to revise the threshold for cash transaction reports, has been passed by parliament.

The bill will reduce the threshold for cash transaction reports for all financial institutions from “$10,000” to “$5,000” or its equivalent in foreign currency.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the revision of the threshold for cash transaction reports will result in a wider data set for intelligence purposes.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this will also result in an improvement in tax revenue collection and tax compliance.