Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad has labelled former Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum as a little cry baby dictator who is misleading people on many issues.

Professor Prasad has highlighted this after Sayed-Khaiyum claimed that the Fijian economy is not doing well because of his policies.

In an interview with fijivillage News this afternoon, Professor Prasad says that Sayed-Khaiyum has not changed in the 16 years as he misinformed people about a lot of things.

He says Sayed-Khaiyum was giving lectures about what the media should do, about using facts and statistics however he is the man who muzzled the media with Bainimarama, where he wouldn't let journalists ask questions, let alone use facts.

The Deputy Prime Minister says the Coalition Government was left with no choice but to increase VAT to clean the financial mess left by Sayed-Khaiyum and his cohort and save Fiji from bankruptcy.

He says if you look at the statistics, in 2023-2024 the actual deficit was 3.4 percent of GDP, and because the government put in policies to fund appropriately they were able to do a lot more.

Professor Prasad says the funding for social pension increased by 15 percent where people aged between 65 to 70 are receiving $115 from $100 and an increase of 25 percent for people aged 70 years are receiving $125 from $100.

He says he is misleading that bus fare and social welfare pension has been partially taken away.

He says Sayed-Khaiyum hasn't stopped misinforming people because before the 2022 elections, they were misleading people that if the coalition government wins, social pension, school fees and bus fare will be taken away.

The Deputy Prime Minister says $653 million in TELS loans was written off which has assisted 53,000 families whose children had gone to the universities.

He says Sayed-Khaiyum is also misleading people by saying that the increase in VAT has dampened consumption and economic activity.

Professor Prasad says in fact, the tax reforms led to an increase in revenue to over $3 billion for the first time.

Professor Prasad says the economy has had a strong rebound and tourism sector has been flourishing, consumption spending remains strong, investments are growing and remittances are at all time high.

While responding to the immigration issue that Sayed-Khaiyum raised, Professor Prasad says in 2022, 16,967 people went for employment while in 2023, 15,000 people went out of the country.

He further says under Sayed-Khaiyum, the country was on a path to doom and now he has the audacity to lecture us on financial management and mislead the people.

The Deputy Prime Minister also says people are now free.

Sayed-Khaiyum does not answer question on why annual reports were not submitted from 2006-2022 and says fijivillage is notoriously biased

By Vijay Narayan , Mansi Chand

Former Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has attacked fijivillage, saying we are notoriously biased when we questioned Sayed-Khaiyum today on the issue raised by Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Biman Prasad that no annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General were tabled in parliament from 2006 to 2022 which shows the lack of accountability at that time.

Professor Prasad had yesterday questioned Opposition Leader, Inia Seruiratu and some members of the Group of 16 where was the value for accountability and transparency by this group when their Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum did not ensure that annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General are tabled in Parliament.

The annual reports of the Office of the Attorney General dating back from 2006 to 2022 were tabled in Parliament in December last year.

Although Sayed-Khaiyum did not answer the question on why no annual reports were tabled from parliament from 2006 to 2022 when he was the Attorney General, he said Professor Prasad is riding on their coattails about the economic decisions they took, and he further says that Prasad needs to realise the economy is actually not doing well because of his policies that he has implemented.

He adds there was absolutely no need to increase VAT as it has dampened consumption.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the issue about increased corporate taxes and asked whether it was driving businesses away from Fiji. He says there is a huge skills gap and businesses are saying it is taking months to get approval on work permits.

Sayed-Khaiyum says we now have a very expensive cabinet and if you say it's going to be paid from within the budget, some project is going to be stopped and money will be taken out from there and you have to pay for these salaries.

He also says what significance is Biman Prasad losing his Public Accounts Committee Chair to people’s lives and there's nothing undemocratic about that.

Sayed-Khaiyum says Professor Prasad is like a little kid who's lost his marbles five years ago in a primary school yard and now he wants to get the marbles back.

According to the Reserve Bank of Fiji in November last year, the Fijian economy is now forecast to grow by 3.8 percent in 2024, an upward revision from the 2.8 percent projected in June.

Chair of the Macroeconomic Committee, Ariff Ali says underpinning the higher growth is the better-than-expected outturn in visitor arrivals, which grew by 6.3 percent in the year to September, almost twice the projected increase in arrivals, consumption spending has gathered pace, supported by higher incomes and remittances, tourism-driven demand, higher Government spending and the pickup in new lending.

Economic growth for 2025 has now been upgraded to 3.4 percent from the 3.0 percent expected earlier.

We would like to state that fijivillage stands for accuracy, fairness and balance at all times.

We are currently trying to speak to Professor Prasad.

Link to the story : Seruiratu’s group is confused and what did they do when they were in Govt – Prof. Prasad : https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Seruiratus-group-is-confused-and-what-did-they-do-when-they-were-in-Govt--Prof-Prasad-4xrf58/