MP Jone Usamate. [Source: Parliament of Fiji/ Facebook]

The poor will pay more, while the rich will save more money.

Opposition Member Jone Usamate made the claims while responding to the 2023–24 budget.

He says the Finance Minister increased the debt in the very first budget, which is not a very good move.

“This is the reality. Bus fares, water prices—all of that is going to go up. It is not a pro-poor budget. It is the exact opposite. This government is saying that debt is so high that you have to go through the hardship of increased debt so we can pay it off. But the debt stock is increasing. If you’re paying off debt, the debt stock should be decreasing.”

Usamate claims that the 2023–24 budget is pro-rich, as ordinary Fijians will be more affected by paying off the debt.

In response, Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources Filimoni Vosarogo says the opposition appears to have a very short memory in not accepting that they were responsible for the increase in the national debt.

He says debt increased from around $2.8 billion in 2006 to approximately more than $9 billion in 2022, and the previous government lived on the high borrowing and high deficits in all these years between 2007 and 2022, which the coalition government is trying to fix.