The government will lose more than $256 million in revenue in a year if Value Added Tax is reduced from 15 percent to 10 percent.
National Federation Party Leader Doctor Biman Prasad recently publicly stated in its Annual General Meeting that NFP will reduce VAT on all goods and services if it forms the next government after the September 17th general election.
Based on the 2014 National Budget forecast, Fijivillage has established that VAT is the largest revenue earner for government.
For this year, VAT revenue is projected at $777 million, around $97 million higher than last year.
Our calculations reveal that $256 million in VAT revenue will be lost by government if NFP forms the next government and makes this change.
We asked Doctor Biman Prasad where the revenue of more than $256 million will be brought in if it is lost through VAT or what types of cutbacks will be done.
Doctor Prasad said he is an economist and it can be done.
He only said that NFP will look at other taxes amongst other issues but he refused to give full details.
Story by: Vijay Narayan and Ronal Deo
