Govt delivers National Budget with a focus to reach 80% vaccination target by 31st October, people to only qualify for targeted assistance if they are vaccinated

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says despite these challenging times, the Government will continue to ensure that every child receives primary and secondary education fully paid by the Government.

$59.4 million has been allocated to cater for 217,000 primary and secondary school students from Years 1 to 13 under the free education initiative introduced in 2014.

A further $17.1 million is provided as transportation assistance for more than 103,000 primary and secondary students from low-income families.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme and National Toppers Scheme will continue to support eligible students to continue their education with an allocation of $158.1 million.

The TELS entry mark has been increased to a minimum of 280 and in areas where there is over supply of graduates, eligibility marks will be increased to 300 for Year 13.

This includes Accounting, Tourism, Law, Management and Public Administration and certain areas in teacher training, medicine, and health.

He says all MBBS students that had privately enrolled with a minimum Year 13 mark of 340, with the first year GPA of 3.0 or more, and combined family income below $100,000 will be eligible for a one off $10,000 Government grant towards their education.

Sayed-Khaiyum also says a new financial assistance scheme will be in place for all TSLB students who are required to complete a period of industrial or clinical attachments to allow them to graduate from their sponsored programme.

This will be a $100 monthly top up in addition to what is being currently provided by their employers.

The Government is also introducing a new TELS stream with 5,000 placements available for TVET courses for Certificates 3, 4 and Diploma Level 5 at Fiji National University.

Those students who will not be able to achieve the cut off mark for TELS for Degree programmes will be able to join this scheme.

Government will continue with the scholarship support through National Toppers Scheme in priority areas, however, the scholarship award has been reduced from 600 to 480.

The 120 awards will be redirected in areas of inclusive education, early childhood education, counselling, and psychology, with 95 placements, and another 25 awards for post graduate programmes such as dermatology, anaesthesia, epidemiology, mid-wifery obstetrics, gynaecology, emergency nursing, surgery and pathology. Priority will be given to female applicants.

Also, effective from 1st January 2023, students who complete foundation studies will be disqualified from TELS eligibility criteria.

Students who are currently enrolled in foundation studies and complete by the end of this year will be eligible for TELS in 2022.

An unemployment income support has been announced for the 2021/2022 National Budget, and the assistance will only provided to people that have received their first dose before the application period ends.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has announced the $200 million in unemployment income support to Fijians affected by COVID-19 both in the formal and informal sectors.

Starting from 1st August 2021, every affected Fijian will be entitled to a monthly allowance of $120 for 6 months, which will be paid in two lump-sum payments.

The first lump-sum payout of $360 per person will be done in August 2021 to cater for the 3 months from August to October, with a total estimated payout of around $100 million.

This support will assist individuals who are in the formal and informal sectors, are above the age of 18 years, living in Viti Levu and do not benefit from any social welfare payments, education allowances, any other government-funded assistance or withdrawals from FNPF.

Eligible Fijians have at least three weeks to ensure that they get at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Sayed-Khaiyum says no jabs, no assistance.

He says they will make the second payment of $360 in November to eligible Fijians provided they are fully vaccinated by 31st October, with a total estimated payout of an additional $100 million.

This payment will cater for the 3 months ending January 2022.

They will make medical exceptions for those with a certificate from the Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services.

Individuals will be required to apply for this assistance, and payouts will be made using M-Paisa and My-Cash platforms.

It will also be mandatory for applicants to provide their birth registration number and their tax identification number apart from other details.

This is necessary because assistance is being paid out on an individual basis.

Sayed-Khaiyum says if there are four eligible individuals per household, the household will receive an unemployment payout of $1,440 for the first payment and an additional $1,440 for second payment.

The earlier initiative whereby unemployed Fijians were eligible for $220 fortnightly payout from FNPF will continue for members with sufficient General Account balances. All those who have exhausted their General Account balances or do not want to access their General Account balance will be eligible for the $720 per-person payout under the new initiative.

Minister for Economy and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says as more adults in Fiji are fully vaccinated, they are developing secure vaccine passports which are essentially digital vaccination certificates.

While delivering 2021/2022 National Budget, Sayed-Khaiyum says you can prove if you have been vaccinated and also show recent COVID-19 test results.

He says this digital tool will be available in two forms - a personalised “digital wallet” whereby Fijians can have their vaccination and COVID-19 test information right on their smartphones or paper printed with readable parts such as barcodes or QR codes.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds they are calling these passports which usually you only need to travel internationally, but these digital certificates will have domestic and international applications.

There is some good news for civil servants as their pay will not be reduced in the 2021/2022 financial year however, when they do review this budget in six months, civil service salaries will be carefully reviewed in the event the borders do not reopen and our economy has not shown measured signs of revival.

While delivering the National Budget, Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they continued paying civil service salaries with no reduction for civil servants below the level of Permanent Secretaries.

He says they have continued to pay teachers, even though they haven’t conducted classes since the start of this outbreak adding that even teachers on acting allowance have been paid during this period.

Sayed-Khaiyum further says they have done this because they want to keep their teachers and make sure they are ready to go the extra mile when schools reopen to help their students catch up on missed curriculum.

He adds some civil servants who work from home on reduced hours or others who cannot attend work due to lockdown measures or home isolation protocols have also been paid in full.

The Minister says by supporting civil servants they are doing more than looking out for their employees, they are supporting the families that rely on civil servants to provide for them, they are supporting the businesses they shop at, and they are supporting the economy as a whole.

Sayed-Khaiyum also says a good number of civil servants are working harder than ever to maintain the Government’s services, especially through this latest outbreak, and they should not and they will not see their salaries reduced further.

He adds to save costs, they have frozen hiring for new positions in the civil service except for the Ministries of Health, Communications, Local Government as well as the Police.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they have gone more than a year without making serious cuts to salaries.

However, he says that commitment does hinge on government revenue being restored within six months, and that depends on more of us being vaccinated.

The Government has announced that FNPF members between the ages of 50 to 54 years who have FNPF balance of up to $10,000, and affected due to COVID-19, will now be able to withdraw funds from their account.

While making the announcement in the 2021/2022 National Budget, Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this will provide financial support to these members to support their livelihood and members can also use these funds to set up small businesses.

Other affected members will also be able to withdraw up to $10,000 for business-related purposes.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this will be an injection of around $30 million in the economy and around 15,000 members qualify to withdraw their funds.

He has also announced the FNPF Employer-Employee contribution to be increased from 5 to 6%.

FNPF has also extended the COVID-19 Home Loan Assistance until 31st September 2021 with acceptance of moratoriums dated after 31st March 2021.

The Minister for Economy says this assistance will enable members to dip into their preserved account to help pay for their mortgage or monthly repayments.

Members are also able to access 100 percent of their General Account and 50 percent of their Preserved Account.

As at end of June 2021, around 1,911 members have accessed this assistance with a total value of $15.3 million.

There is good news for market vendors, taxi, minibus, carrier and bus operators as the Government will be paying their stall and base fees.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says to support all casual and full-time market vendors in Fiji and provide financial relief across the country, $2.6 million is allocated to pay the full market stall fees for one year from 1st August 2021 to 31st July 2022 for the benefit of around 8,000 vendors.

Sayed-Khaiyum says if you are selling in a market, your fees are paid and you can keep more of your income, use it to sustain your family, use it to build your business, and lower your prices if you think it helps you sell and earn more.

He further says the Government will also put aside an allocation of $2.5 million to pay base fees for taxis, minibuses, carriers and buses for one year, also to cushion the burden brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lowered demand for passenger travel that has hit the bottom-line of public service vehicle drivers.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds in relation to fees, they will also be removing the LTA alteration-of-records fee to make it easier for Fijians to change their records held by the LTA.

He says the Government will pay the driving license and defensive driving fees for all taxi drivers, bus drivers, mini-bus drivers and carrier drivers who are up for renewals in the next financial year while Government will also pay the wheel tax and road user levy for tractors and golf carts for 12 months.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they are removing municipal taxi bases and stands and replacing them with a new concept of ‘open taxi ranks’, which will allow taxis to operate more freely and efficiently within their zones.

He further says with the removal of municipal taxi bases and stands, they will also be removing the various base, stand and station fees that public service vehicle permit holders currently pay that covers taxi drivers, bus drivers, and minibus drivers and replacing them with an annual PSV levy paid for by all PSV permit holders except rental permit holders and those who have paid these fees already will be reimbursed.

Sayed-Khaiyum also says the new PSV levy will be collected and placed in a specific trust fund that will be used for the development and maintenance of PSV bases, stands and stations.

Government will also be waiving the 50 percent additional penalty charged on Traffic Infringement Notices for personal motor vehicle infringements incurred from 15 July 2021 for unemployed Fijians.

These are for basic infringements such as speeding, red-light traffic infringement and other infringements that do not involve illegal operations.

Sayed-Khaiyum says these individuals will be given a grace period from 1st August 2021 to 31st July 2022 to come forward and clear their principal Traffic Infringement Notices amounts.

The Government has announced that $200 million in loans is available to businesses to meet their working capital needs.

20,000 businesses can be assisted through this.

The Government will pay the interest for the first two years which means the businesses will not pay for the first two years.

The $200 million loan will be made available through the Reserve Bank of Fiji to commercial banks.

Existing micro-businesses with turnover less than $50,000 will be eligible for a maximum loan funding of $10,000.

Small businesses with an annual turnover of $50,000 to $300,000 will be eligible for a maximum loan funding of $20,000, while medium-sized businesses with an annual turnover of $300,000 to $1.25 million are eligible for a maximum loan of $50,000.

Large businesses with turnover of more than $1.25 million can access up to $100,000 in loans.

Through this scheme the Reserve Bank of Fiji will provide special funding of $200 million at a rate of 0.25% that can be accessed by commercial banks, FDB and other licensed credit institutions.

These financial institutions will lend these funds at a maximum rate of 3.99 percent. All of this will allow Fiji’s banks to make these interest-only loans for the first two years.

That means that for the first two years, none of these businesses will pay anything because Government will pay all the interest.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the beauty is that these loans cannot become bad or default for the first two years, because debt service will always be current.

He says this gives our businesses two full years to stabilize and recover, if necessary, before they start the loan repayments from year three onwards.

It has also been announced that from 1st August 2021, micro, small and medium enterprises with a turnover of less than $1.25 million will pay residential rates for EFL, not commercial rates.

The government will also pay through RBF for the fees for the micro, small and medium enterprises to get on Vodafone Fiji's VitiKart platform.

They will also pay for the monthly fees for corner shops that provide MPAiSA services.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says social welfare recipients eligible for term life and funeral benefits must be fully vaccinated by 1st November 2021.

While announcing the National Budget, Sayed-Khaiyum says the Government is subsidising micro-insurance coverage for all social welfare recipients through the Government Micro Insurance Program at a cost of $5.6 million per year.

He says this insurance policy pays out in the event of death, house fires and sickness and vaccination is a requirement of insurance companies, given the severe risks of death due to COVID-19.

The Government will continue to provide free water to households with an annual household income of less than $30,000 for up to 92,500 litres of water.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the same goes for access to electricity.

He says for households earning an annual income of less than $30,000, they have been providing a subsidy of 16.34 cents per unit for the 100 kilowatts of power usage.

Effective from 1st August 2021 to 31st January 2022, the Government will pay the full cost of 34.01 cents for approximately 50,000 households at a total cost $11 million.

Sayed-Khaiyum says like almost everything else in this budget, this policy depends on vaccination rates climbing, so it will be reviewed in six months’ time.

He says apart from this, subsidized domestic customers will get six weeks to pay their electricity bill without disconnection.

Non-subsidised domestic customers will get four weeks for their bill payment.

This extended bill payment will be provided for six months from 1st August 2021 to 31st January 2022 before it is reviewed.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has announced that the Government will extend the minimum guarantee price of $85 per tonne of cane for the 2021 season, making this the fourth year of guaranteed cane price support.

He says they understand the plight of the farmers and government stands behind them.

The Ministry of Sugar Industry is provided funding of $72 million in the 2021-2022 Budget which is an increase from $53.6 million which was allocated in the 2020/21 National Budget.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this includes a funding allocation of around $47 million for the sugar cane price support.

He says this includes around $22.9 million for the additional top-up payment required for the 2020 season and $24.1 million to pay for the minimum guaranteed price of $85 dollars per tonne for the 2021 season.

The Minister says the remaining funding requirement of $8 million dollars, dependent on the cane harvest for the 2021 season will be provided in the 2022-2023 Budget to meet the final payment for the 2021 season.

The Minister has also highlighted that apart from this, the Government will continue to provide the fertiliser subsidy to farmers at a rate of $25.59 per bag with a total funding allocation of $15.6 million.

He says this means that farmers will only continue to pay a price of $20 per bag of fertiliser.

Sayed-Khaiyum $3.8 million is also provided for the cane cartage subsidy from Penang to Rarawai Mill.

A further $3.3 million is also provided for cane access roads, sugarcane development farmer assistance, weedicide subsidy and new farmer assistance.

The Government is providing $23.1 million to the Fijian Elections Office to continue preparations for the General Election.

Elections can be held anytime from 9th July 2022 to 9th January 2023.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says an additional $16.3 million has been provided in the event that elections are held within the 2021-2022 financial year.

$1.5 million of that total will go to Fiji Police Force to maintain security during elections.

The Government says $500 million in the 2021-2022 National Budget will go towards upgrading, modernising, and expanding the road network and the provision of clean and safe drinking water and electricity.

$272 million is provided for the Fiji Roads Authority, $195 million to the Water Authority of Fiji and $26.6 million to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Meteorological Services.

This also includes over $11 million for grid extension and house wiring and rehabilitation of diesel schemes for communities that have been relocated to protect them from the rising seas.

Energy Fiji Limited will now be responsible for back to back work including grid extension and house wiring to make the process more efficient.

Funding has been allocated in the 2021-2022 National Budget for 328 new positions in the Fiji Police Force.

This includes the promotion of 158 police officers and recruitment of 82 new police officers, 78 special constables, 7 civilian officers and 3 Government wage earners.

The Fiji Police Force has been allocated $184.3 million in the 2021-2022 budget.

$152.4 million is for operating expenditure and $27.9 million for capital expenditure.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the Government will continue to fund the construction of new Police Stations, currently underway in Nakasi, Nadi, Lautoka and Nalawa.

He says $25 million is allocated for the ongoing construction of police stations, which will expand the reach of law enforcement to Fijians living in the central and western divisions.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds an additional $1 million is allocated for renovation, extension and upgrade of existing police posts. He says $1.2 million is provided to undertake special drug operations that arise based on any suspected cases of drug-related activities in all divisions.

Sayed-Khaiyum further says over the course of the past two years, this operation has uncovered over $200 million in various narcotics.

He adds a further $1.5 million is provided for capital purchases to adequately equip the police and police stations to detect criminal activity and lower the response time of officers called to action, including procurement of boats and outboard motor engines, communication and other specialised equipment.

The Republic of Fiji Military Forces is provided a funding of $79.7 million and $36. 5 million is provided to the Fiji Corrections Services. FICAC has a budget of $7.9 million.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the Business Process Outsourcing Council will be provided with a grant of $200,000 in the 2021-2022 National Budget to develop the BPO sector.

Business Process Outsourcing companies includes such as call centres and those that provide accounting services.

Sayed-Khaiyum has also announced tax incentives for the industry where new investments exceeding $10 million in infrastructure that supports Business Process Outsourcing will be offered a 20-year tax holiday.

A 10 year and 15 year tax holiday will also be available for investments between $2 million to $5 million and $5 million to $10 million, respectively.

He says customs duty exemptions will also be provided as part of this incentive package.

The Minister says this investment package will be extended to investors that derive 90% of income from an ICT business.

He says if the investor is also involved in developing strata titles and selling them to Information and communications technology or BPO operators, the sale proceeds will also be exempt from income taxes.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds the remote work revolution can come to Fiji as Fiji has the workforce, the data accessibility, and the incentives in place to do extremely well in this industry.

National Federation Party Leader Professor Biman Prasad says the 2021/2022 National Budget is just based on the assumption, that will like all other budgets in recent years result in hopelessness and despair.

Professor Prasad says the Minister for Economy has carefully avoided giving any information on the COVID-19 crisis and is imagining that everything will be magically resolved by 31st October.

He adds there is a lot of uncertainties, doubts and lack of carefully planned expectation of what is likely to happen in the next couple of months.

The NFP Leader also says he feels that the projection in the revenue is overestimated and not realizable.

He adds the Minister has conveniently avoided talking about the crisis which is affecting the country at the moment.

SODELPA Leader Viliame Gavoka says it is very obvious that the Government is creating demand and putting money in the hands of the people and this is exactly what the Opposition has been saying for the last year or so.

Gavoka says they believe that it is the right way as they have been saying create the demand and the economy will recover.

He says at the same time, we have to look at the expenditure.

Gavoka says they have a team that will analyse and scrutinize the budget in the coming days and seminars will be organized with the parliamentary caucus.

On the issue of an alternative budget being presented by the Opposition, Gavoka says discussions will be held and nothing is definitive on this subject yet.

Government will continue to assist more than 130,000 Fijians through their Social Welfare programs in the new financial year.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says despite massive reductions in fiscal revenue, government has not forgotten its obligation to protect the most marginalized Fijians.

$120 million has been allocated for the Poverty Benefit Scheme, Child Protection Allowance Program, Disability Allowance Program, Social Pension Scheme and Bus Fare Subsidies.

The Minister for Economy says $55 million has been allocated for the Social Pension Scheme which will support 48,094 Fijians above the age of 65.

They will receive a monthly payment of $100.

He says $36 million has been allocated to assist 27,490 Fijians through the Poverty Benefit scheme.

$10.8 million has been allocated for the Disability Allowance Program, $11.3 million is allocated under the Child Protection Allowance to support vulnerable children while $5 million has been allocated to provide bus fare support for the elderly and people with disability.

Sayed-Khaiyum says a further $1 million is allocated for the Food Voucher Program for rural pregnant women.

He adds overall funding for social protection initiatives has been reduced by $4.2 million compared to the 2020-2021 financial year.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this is does not mean that they are scaling down but because they are making sure that the assistance reaches the people who really need it.

The Attorney General has also acknowledged the Australian Government for providing budget support to selected social welfare programs in the 2020-2021 financial year which will also be applied to the new financial year.

The Minister for Economy says for the financial year 2021-2022, tax revenue collections are projected at $1.597 billion, 43.3% lower than pre-COVID levels.

He says compared to the 2020-2021 financial year, tax collections are higher due to lower estimated VAT refunds as large backlog of outstanding refunds were cleared in this financial year.

This higher collection is also based on the assumption that there will be some form of reopening of the borders in the first half of 2022, but arrivals are conservatively estimated at around 20% of preCOVID levels for revenue projection purposes.

Sayed-Khaiyum says it is important to note that the Government will also carry over around $150 million in cash balances to the new financial year. He says this provides an additional buffer in the event if tax revenues do not perform as projected.

Apart from this, non-tax revenue is estimated at $487.5 million.

The Minister for Economy says the Government will continue reforms with further divestments planned for Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Limited, Fiji Airports Limited and some other small entities.

He says this is expected to generate around $150 million in non-tax revenue.

Government is also in discussion with a number of development partners for more budget support grants which is conservatively budgeted at around $116.3 million.

Based on the assumptions, the total revenue for 2021/2022 National Budget is projected to be around $2.1 billion. This includes tax revenue of around $1.6 billion and $488 million in non-tax revenue including grants and divestment of shares.

On the expenditure front, Sayed-Khaiyum says reductions have been made in operational expenditure across Government, including a freeze in civil service recruitments and reductions in other current expenditures.

However, new expenditure demands have been catered for to provide targeted assistance to those unemployed and vulnerable, and fiscal support provided to businesses and the tourism industry to sustain themselves before the borders open up.

The total expenditure for the next budget is around $3.69 billion.

Government debt is projected to be around $9.1 billion or 91.6% of GDP by end of July 2022.

However, the Minister for Economy says as seen in this financial year, it is likely that actual debt could be lower than projected if border reopening and pick up in tourism and other sectors are much stronger than anticipated.

The President of the Suva Retailers Association Jitesh Patel says the 2021/2022 National Budget is a good budget because there is a lot of assistance for people who have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says this is what they were expecting from the Government as more people are affected due to unemployment.

Patel says the continuation of the free education assistance and also providing sanitary pads for schoolgirls is a great initiative from the Government.

He further says the Government has done great in the last financial year and with the new incentives in place, businesses will also benefit.

He adds with $200 million in loans available to businesses to meet their working capital, will be re-invested in the economy through spending of the people and in the end build the economy back.

The President of the Suva Retailers Association says they support the Government's no jab no job policy.

The Government has announced that $200 million in loans is available to businesses to meet their working capital needs.

20,000 businesses can be assisted through this.

The Government will pay the interest for the first two years which means the businesses will not pay for the first two years.

The $200 million loan will be made available through the Reserve Bank of Fiji to commercial banks.

Existing micro businesses with turnover less than $50,000 will be eligible for a maximum loan funding of $10,000.

Small businesses with an annual turnover of $50,000 to $300,000 will be eligible for a maximum loan funding of $20,000, while medium-sized businesses with annual turnover of $300,000 to $1.25 million are eligible for a maximum loan of $50,000.

Large businesses with turnover of more than $1.25 million can access up to $100,000 in loans.

Through this scheme the Reserve Bank of Fiji will provide special funding of $200 million at a rate of 0.25% that can be accessed by commercial banks, FDB and other licensed credit institutions.

These financial institutions will lend these funds at a maximum rate of 3.99%.

All of this will allow Fiji’s banks to make these interest-only loans for the first two years.

That means that for the first two years, none of these businesses will pay anything because Government will pay all the interest.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the beauty is that these loans cannot become bad or default for the first two years, because debt service will always be current.

He says this gives our businesses two full years to stabilize and recover, if necessary, before they start the loan repayments from year three onwards.

It has also been announced that from 1st August 2021, micro, small and medium enterprises with a turnover of less than $1.25 million will pay residential rates for EFL, not commercial rates.

The government will also pay through RBF for the fees for the micro, small and medium enterprises to get on Vodafone Fiji's VitiKart platform.

They will also pay for the monthly fees for corner shops that provide MPAiSA services.

The Government says $500 million in the 2021-2022 National Budget will go towards upgrading, modernising, and expanding the road network and the provision of clean and safe drinking water and electricity.

$272 million is provided for the Fiji Roads Authority, $195 million to the Water Authority of Fiji and $26.6 million to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Meteorological Services.

This also includes over $11 million for grid extension and house wiring and rehabilitation of diesel schemes for communities that have been relocated to protect them from the rising seas.

Energy Fiji Limited will now be responsible for back to back work including grid extension and house wiring to make the process more efficient.

To give more travel options to Fijians rather than opting for their own personal vehicles every day of the working week, the Government will be piloting suburban shuttle stations at three sites in the country.

While speaking on the 2021/2022 National Budget, the Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says right now, we have some restrictions on the number of people who can travel together in public transportation vehicles.

He says as more people are vaccinated, those restrictions will start to ease and the Government is laying the groundwork to make public transportation easier and more convenient once Fiji is fully reopen, particularly in densely populated areas.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the three sites will be in Nakasi, Valelevu and Lautoka where transport will pick working Fijians from their homes to their places of work.

He adds that they are also moving certain Government offices to these areas to take advantage of this growing shuttle network.

The Attorney General says these shuttles are more convenient because they will traverse within suburbs on a regular basis, so getting to the stops themselves can take a short walk rather than a long drive.

National Farmers Union General Secretary, Mahendra Chaudhry has welcomed the allocation of funds in the 2021/2022 National Budget to retain the minimum guaranteed price of cane.

The Union has thanked the cane farmers who supported its call to delay harvesting until provision was made for the guaranteed minimum price of $85 per tonne of cane.

Chaudhry says farmers can start harvesting now.

He says it was evident from the substantially reduced forecast price and delivery payment for this year's crop that the Government was not intending to continue the guaranteed price.

Chaudhry says the failed attempt last year by the Minister for Economy to reduce the guaranteed price to $70, the low 4th cane payment for the 2020 crop and non-payment of $15 owed on it to farmers were seen by the Union as further indicators of his intention to discontinue the guaranteed price.

Chaudhry says it was largely through disruptions to the milling of cane caused by a majority of farmers delaying their harvest that the Government has relented.

He adds now that the money is there, the Government and the Fiji Sugar Corporation should get off their high horse and pay the balance of $15 owed to farmers for last year's crop without delay.

Chaudhry says adjustments should also be made to the forecast price and delivery payment based on the guaranteed price.

He has also called on the FSC and Government not to victimise the farmers who stood up for their rights.

In his budget address, Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had said that they are extending the minimum guarantee price of $85 per tonne for the 2021 season because they understand the plight of our farmers.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they have always supported the sugar industry and they always will. He has thanked the cane farmers for starting their harvesting knowing full well that the Government will not leave them behind.

The Attorney General has also thanked the farmers and all the industry stakeholders who did not succumb to the self-interested call for a boycott.

Sayed-Khaiyum says our farmers know very well that a harvesting boycott could never be in their interest and could only serve the interests of those who would use our cane farmers for political gain.

The Ministry of Sugar has been allocated $72 million in the 2021-2022 Budget.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this includes a funding allocation of around $47 million for the sugar cane price support.

He says around $22.9 million is for the additional top-up payment required for the 2020 season and $24.1 million is to pay for the minimum guaranteed price of $85 per tonne for the 2021 season.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds the remaining funding requirement of $8 million dollars, dependent on the cane harvest for the 2021 season, will be provided in the 2022-2023 budget to meet the final payment for the 2021 season.

Around 1,000 new jobs were created under the Stronger Together Job Support scheme since the initiative began in November last year.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they will continue with the initiative in the new financial year and have allocated $5 million for its continuation.

Sayed-Khaiyum says government has so far spent $3 million on this initiative and around 48 employers have participated in the scheme.

Under this scheme, employers are granted a wage subsidy by government equivalent to the minimum wage rate of $2.68 for a three-month period when they employ eligible Fijians who did not have a job before COVID-19.

This is particularly for people in the informal sector.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds they are also providing $1 million dollars for retaining and reskilling people through the Fiji National University.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says as part of the public-private partnership arrangements with Health Care Fiji Limited, the Ba Hospital will start operations in December this year.

He also says the Lautoka Hospital is scheduled to commence operations in March next year and its services will include open-heart surgery.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they are providing $20 million with an additional $25.7 million under the Ministry of Health for the running of the Lautoka Hospital.

$1.5 million has also been provided in the 2021-2022 National Budget to subsidise kidney dialysis treatment.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the government will provide a subsidy of $150 per treatment.

The Government's “Northern Connectivity” Project which aims to make sure Fijians in the North have the ability to connect to fast internet speeds is on track to be completed in December this year.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this initiative focuses on 40 schools and health centres in the Northern Division.

He says this project will bring reliable access to power, internet and ICT equipment to at least 20,000 Fijians in close proximity to these 40 sites.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds it will also enable other emergency portable satellite-based solutions for the deployment of appropriate assistance in times of disasters.