1. After having been rebuffed by the IMF for his colourable accounting on the so-called” balanced budget”, he is trying another of his budgetary tricks - a reallocation of budget funds which is no more but a vain ploy of attempting to impact on the forthcoming village and municipal elections by announcing some populist and inefficacious measures and the reallocation of the funds to some infrastructural projects barely four months after the budget. It confirms to some extent that the plethora of projects announced in the Budget 2020-21 were mere wish-lists – mere “effets d’anonces”- that we can safely do without.
2. Doubtful logic of our MoF: Pre-Covid, some of our flourishing businesses were already seeing their fortunes wilt and some 102 of them were in terminal decline showing that our economy was already in tatters much before Covid-19 struck. With only 63 closures now, despite the WAS, the SEAS and the support from DBM , our MoF sees this as proof that the economy is weathering the shocks and that there's evidence of green shoots. What he does not seem to be aware of is that his liquidity and repo rate measures did not have much of an impact on domestic demand, both on consumption and investment. Nor will his new stop-gap measures. They are not addressing the key problem of lack of demand.
3. What is this stupidity of a 40% rebate on the excise duties on cars , when we badly need to preserve our scarce foreign reserves and not add to an already worsening Current Account deficit expected to reach a record level of some 15% of GDP by the end of the year ? Boosting the sales of cars has become a top priority ! Li pé perdi la tête quoi ? As an aside ,is this how we are expected to be extending and promoting the use of our Metro Express ?
4. The MoF brags that he has been able to contain the closure of businesses and limit the number of unemployed to less than 50,000 but he does not breathe a word about the regulations issued by the Ministry of Labour prohibiting any reduction of personnel until the end of the year and the cost to the taxpayers in meeting the WAS , the SEAS and other support measures.
5. Mr Payadachy cleverly avoids the queries on the MIC by diverting the question on the issue of the vulnerabilities of the corporate sector which may lead to a sysyemic failure of the banking system. He thus avoids answering why the rules of business are being corrupted. Corporations should not be allowed to create the rules they play by. They must be prevented by all means necessary from writing them. MIC should ensure as recommended by Sameer Sharma that it appoints “ external advisers who will not only act as a check and balance but also help the MIC in conducting the pre deal on-site and offsite due diligence, the negotiation and also in properly pricing the securities on a deal by deal basis.”
We end up subsidising the corporates and what are we, taxpayers, getting back in return for our assistance ? Why are these companies, which have failed to build up cash reserves and have mostly relied on debt, being rescued when the SMEs , that employ many more workers overall , aren’t ? Why are the big businesses get a helping hand at taxpayers’ expense while the average Mauritians are mostly left to fend for themselves or given a mere pittance ?
