Nadi Chamber of Commerce has said the struggling Nadi businesses have not received any kind of relief from EFL – Gavoka

SODELPA parliamentarian, Viliame Gavoka says the Nadi Chamber of Commerce has said the struggling Nadi businesses have not received any kind of relief from EFL however Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the EFL subsidy is to assist households earning less than $30,000, it is not for rich doctors.

The Minister for Economy has highlighted that they have allocated in the current financial year a sum of $5.2 million to pay for the EFL subsidies.

He says a total of 40,182 families are assisted through this subsidy and 779 schools are also being assisted.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this number has increased now which means that the subsidy will increase too to $6.7 million and the government will have to vire funds from within to meet the shortfall.

While responding to a supplementary question by Gavoka, Sayed-Khaiyum said that this subsidy is for households only.

Nadi Chamber of Commerce President, Doctor Ram Raju says some sort of rebate or discount should be issued to businesses as they are suffering for quite some time.

He says perhaps they could be offered similar rates offered to households.

Dr. Raju also says that comments by Sayed-Khaiyum are personal and he does not understand where that is coming from. He says he is talking on behalf of businesses in Nadi who have been suffering for some time now and this is about ensuring that people are employed so that they can put food on their table.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says Energy Fiji Limited has discounted a total sum of $6.7 million from last year April to March this year for families earning $30,000 or less annually.

He says because of the COVID measures that have been put in place, they collaborated with EFL that also provided a subsidy essentially for the balance after the 51% government subsidy was paying and this has meant that those familes that applied did not pay anything for the 100 units of electricity until March this year.

Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted this while responding to a question by SODELPA MP, Adi Litia Qionibaravi to provide an update on Electricity Subsidy Scheme for households with combined income of $30,000 or less.