FIRCA Happy With Court Outcome

The Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority is happy that the Lautoka High Court has told Natural Waters Viti Limited to pay a bond before they export Fiji Water until the 31st of January.

In its judgement, the court has ruled that Natural Waters of Viti Limited needs to deposit a bond of 5 million dollars to continue exports until the end of the month.

This has been done while the issue of transfer pricing is addressed later in court. FIRCA has raised concern that Natural Waters of Viti has been valuing a carton of Fiji Water exported to its parent company at $4US a carton.

The tax department said this value being stated in the export documents to FIRCA is unrealistic and each carton being exported to its parent company in the US should be valued at $24US.

FIRCA's Chief Executive Officer Jitoko Tikolevu said the people of Fiji should be happy too that FIRCA is pushing hard to ensure that people get a fair share from the sale of water.

According to Tikolevu, Fiji Water or any other company needs to value their exports properly. He said the issue is far from over and FIRCA will see that this matter is put to rest in a way that Fiji gets what it deserves while also keeping in mind the valuable input of Fiji Water to the Fiji economy.

He said FIRCA while waiting for the court case to pursue next month, will inspect other export documents to ensure proper reporting of the current consignment.

Natural Waters filed an injunction seeking court orders, which include that FIRCA gives the all clear, for its containers of Fiji Water sitting at the Lautoka Wharf to be exported.

The application will be set for hearing in the Suva High Court next Thursday.