Parliament

Opposition showing pathetic, cheap political grandstand

April 4, 2022 1:02 pm

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.[File Image]

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has hit out at some Opposition Members for turning a minor amendment to the Value Added Tax Amendment Bill No. 2 of 2022 into a political debate.

The motion was to correct two coding numbers in the Bill which was entered incorrectly.

However, SODELPA Leader, Viliame Gavoka opposed the motion saying they need clarification on these types of amendments.

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“I was asking my colleague here, the honourable leader of Opposition, what was the practice in all other parliaments? Did this thing happen in the manner that we see today? He said no, it did not happen in the manner that we see today, that when something goes wrong, the correction bill comes to parliament.”

In response, Sayed-Khaiyum says that under the previous Constitution, a number of errors were made in the budget estimates.

“If you went to the budgetary debate if you look at the amount of corrections that the Minister for Finance then used to make in the actual budget estimate figures, it was replete with mistakes. The Hansard will prove that to you.”

Sayed-Khaiyum went on to say that the Opposition did not have anything substantial to say about the revised budget last week, but today want to capitalize in a pathetic manner.

He says the government has taken responsibility for entering the codes incorrectly and is rectifying it.

“It’s so pathetically cheap political grandstanding going on here on two codes. Simply two codes. Not going back into history, not actually being honest about it, and not being able to point out how many other times have mistakes been made since 2014. None.”

He says the Opposition is going through the whole charade trying to object to everything the government is doing.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the codes need to be corrected so that ordinary Fijians, retailers, wholesalers, importers, and manufacturers don’t get confused with the changes to VAT on certain food items.

The amendment has been passed.