Have a look at today’s headlines : profits de 7.8 millards pour le groupe MCB; Le chiffre d'affaires d'IBL passe à Rs 52 milliards ; Groupe CIEL : bénéfices nets en hausse de 37 %; malgré les risques inhérents au Caudan Waterfront les profits ont eu le dernier mot.
You recall that during the days of the Sithanen-Mansoor tandem at the Ministry of Finance, our PM , then a firebrand of the opposition, was denouncing them as being “the trojan horse” of the private sector oligarchy in Mauritian politics , exposing them for having over-taxed the population by some Rs 20 billions, for having gifted the sugar barons the billions of compensation money obtained from the EU for the restructuring of the sugar sector, for liberalising land to unlock massive potential for profits in real estate development for large land owners, for granting more advantageous IPPs in energy, and for encouraging the depreciation of the rupee to boost sugar and other export revenues of the oligarchy while the population, especially the poor, were having to bear too high an inflation burden.
Once in power, our PM started walking in the footsteps of the Sithanen-Mansoor duo , even outdoing them to become the protector and defender of the narrow interests of the plutocracy. He appointed one of their poodles as Minister of Finance and from then on the economic dynamics are being shaped by the same subservient policies in the interests of the private sector while our workers continue to bear the brunt of such policies.
The increase in minimum wage and the guaranteed minimum income (rapidly eroded by inflation ) are mere economic theatrics-crumbs for workers from the banquet table where the economic elite are having a feast- enormous profits from the deliberate depreciation of the rupee and price-gouging , Rs 20 billion as wage assistance scheme , export promotion subsidies, and some Rs 50 billion(printed money) from the MIC which bailed out the corporates to their advantage at our cost and the billions reaped from real estate schemes and speculation on FX…
A temporary windfall gains tax on the big corporates and the top exporting companies could have made a difference to our cost of living -lower petroleum prices, the maintenance of subsidies on essential household items, …
That would be expecting too much from l’homme du sector privé!
