Govt has adopted a pragmatic approach through the 2020-2021 National Budget – Raj

The Director of Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Ashwin Raj says government has adopted a pragmatic approach through the 2020-2021 National Budget.

Raj says the National Budget carefully balances between the option of taking harsh austerity measures to arrest economic malaise which can further entrench and exacerbate existing inequalities and the need to spend to revitalize the economy, keep jobs, create incentives through the recalibration of our tax regimes and sustain the various social protection schemes that our poor heavily rely on.

He further says implicit in this approach taken by Government is the recognition that there is no easy trade-off between the economy, our health, our right to have rights and our inherent human dignity.

He says the budget is also sutured by the realization that the global pandemic has disproportionately impacted on our ability to enjoy social and economic rights particularly those that are already on the margins of our society and have no access to social mobility.