Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad says that many local manufacturers enjoy significant protection and they shouldn’t make profit at the expense of the people, as they too have a responsibility to care for the community.
Professor Prasad stressed this during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan when asked about the concerns raised by the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation over the partial removal of duty protection for manufacturers.
He says manufacturers need to produce enough at an acceptable cost.
He says protection is meant to be temporary, but in this country, some industries have enjoyed it for decades, leaving consumers to bear the cost.
Professor Prasad says under the previous government a sole company was given 10 years of tax protection and 32 percent duty protection on milk products while importers had to pay a 32 percent duty, the local manufacturer — who was protected and did not pay this duty — still sold milk at prices nearly equal to those of imported products with duty.
He says who is losing on that, certainly not the manufacturer or the business making all the money but not passing the benefit that the government is providing for a reasonable price.
The Deputy Prime Minister says it's the government's responsibility to look at the structure of protection, because they don't want people to keep paying more.
When asked about the monitoring system because people have been charged exorbitant prices and the need for FCCC to be more decisive, the Deputy Prime Minister says they will be more effective.
Professor Prasad further says they want this task force to ensure that the government is fair to the businesses, businesses are fair to the consumers and ensure that prices for consumers are reasonable.
The Deputy Prime Minister adds that it will be unethical and unscrupulous of businesses to maintain those prices when VAT and duty will be reduced and therefore the task force has a a lot of work to do.
