Prof. Prasad urges businesses to absorb minimum wage hike without burdening consumers

Following the progressive increase in the national minimum wage to $5 per hour, a call is being made to businesses to not pass this increase to consumers just because it is going to raise the cost of production.

While responding to questions by fijivillage News after delivering the 2024-2025 National Budget, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says it will be unethical for businesses who can afford to pay the increase to pass those increases in cost on to the consumers.

He says the Government is already giving a lot to businesses where the 3 percent duty on the importation of raw materials, machinery, and packaging material that are not manufactured and available locally has been removed and they did not bring back dividend tax and have not increased corporate tax.

Professor Prasad says the Government is open to looking at those employers who may face some difficulty and will assess them.

The Deputy Prime Minister also says raising the minimum wage will also raise productivity and increase economic activity as people will have more money to spend.

Meanwhile the increase in the wages and salaries of civil servants will cost the government an additional $66 million.

Professor Prasad says this money is coming from overall revenue efforts where they are going to collect about $3 billion in revenue by the end of this financial year.