VAT cut is not a cure – Koya

Opposition MP Faiyaz Koya says the VAT cut is not a cure but it is a band-aid solution to the cost of living problem.

While opposing the 2025-2026 National Budget in Parliament, Koya says the real cure is to grow more food at home, make farmers stronger, to fix the supply chain bottlenecks, and give every farmer fair prices and every fisherman a fair market.

Koya has questioned the lack of a bold productivity plan to modernise agriculture, improve rural roads, and expand export markets for cane, ginger and seafood.

He says the Coalition Government created this cost of living crisis and over $800 million in cost of living measures, a VAT cut from 15 percent to 12.5 percent, continued zero rating for 22 essentials, bus fare subsidies, back to school grants, pay bumps for civil servants are not new, but good measures that only sound fantastic and generous on paper.

Koya asks whose pockets will carry the burden when the ink on this budget dries.

The Opposition MP says we will borrow to pay for the salaries and we will pay over half a billion dollars in interest alone before we touch a single pothole or lay a single metre of new water pipe as the operating expenditure is estimated at 81 percent of the budget.

He further says the so-called relief, is only relief, if the savings reach the people's hands.

Koya asks what has been given to the FCCC to see whether the reductions are passed down to the people.

He says the government's plan is to hope that supermarkets do the right thing and asks how do we expect every small shop in every settlement to comply when we do not have enough to actually police.

Koya has also questioned the $10 million grant to Yasawa Tourism Cooperative Limited under the Department of Cooperative Business.

While responding to questions by fijivillage News, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says that is a grant for helping cooperatives in the Yasawas.

He says the allocation does not mean that there will be no proper projects and procedures.

Professor Prasad says these cooperatives were destroyed during COVID so they needed additional support