Opposition MP, Prem Singh was told to withdraw his comments in parliament today after he claimed that government MPs are able to afford champagne everyday leaving those that earn less not being able to afford alcohol.

Singh says that duty on alcohol and cigarettes has increased by 45 percent in the last three years and it has had an effect on low income earners.

He mentioned that they are just trying to put things into perspective.

“We are not promoting drinking of beer and consumption of cigarettes, what we are trying to do is to put it in perspective for the other side because there are people on the other side who can afford to buy champagne every day.
However, Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said this is not the case and raised a point of order."

“Actually he is misleading parliament, I don’t drink champagne every day, I don’t think, even some of them, no one here drinks champagne every day, this side of parliament. You take it metaphorically, you state it metaphorically if you want to be clever. If you want to be sarcastic, be clever about sarcasm, because sarcasm is the lowest form of whit, and you know that.”

Singh says that beer is treated as a social drink and the continuous increase duty on it will deprive low income earners to afford a few drinks.