Sunday, August 7, 2011

Mansoor Wants Mauritius To Pay For Bean-Counting Mess, Again

That's what I conclude from skimming through his latest PBB circular No 7. In it, he is saying that the economy is not growing as fast as expected so that he now wants to introduce and/or raise user fees. Because, he adds, there is limited scope for raising taxes if we don't want to scare off private domestic investment and FDI. Well, we know for a fact that the Rs 40 billion of FDI we received after taxes were slashed by 50% didn't make a difference in the lives of a supermajority of Mauritians. For five straight years. So that's a spurious argument at best.

Also, the average growth rates of 4% he's expecting for the next three years is not that bad by itself but too low to get us out of the toxic debt dynamics his flat tax has thrown us into. And recall we were told back in 2005 that two years of belt-tightening combined with the potent new medicine of Dr Kontu would send us orbiting into economic nirvana. That did not happen either. In fact Mauritius missed one of the strongest world recovery last year and could miss more. A lot more.

The dismantling of our welfare state which incidentally established the reputation of our country worldwide by providing exceptional social mobility to countless thousands will also have severe repercussions on the political chessboard. Ramgoolam has already seen his majority dwindle from 38 at the the time of result proclamation in 2005 to a current 36 after best losers and turncoat. The stage could now be set to seriously frustrate his attempts to stay in power after 2015.

7 comments:

akagugo said...

MAM en verve.

Eski dans 3.5 ans lepep pou contign trouv Dodoland ossi désirab kan MAM pou fini aplik tou saki so lekol inn apprann li appel 'désirab'?

Kom dit Polo: "Donne lé-temps..."

Anonymous said...

talk to the new FM

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Pa bliye Malawi inn sufer buku akoz bann piow depi World Bank. Isi dimunn pe sufer depi 6 banane. Ziska kan?

Enn ti remark: AMM inn fek dekuver ki tax se enn variab importan dan finans piblik. Kit soz ki li ti okilte lane dernyer. Anu dibut nu dir li bravo. Apel sa enn quantum leap!

Anonymous said...

Ali le durable, rama go, Ali stay, Pravin go, Ali stay, Duval go, Ali stay, what next? Ali PM!!

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Lol!
Nu pu pas de MID a MIA. Maurice Ile Ali.

Anonymous said...

Nek dire li mette user fees apres rode sime bourrer avec so PBB ent so la cuisse.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Bon, vi ki an gran parti sa bann milyar FDI la finn kree lampwa zis pu zardinye ek netoyer pisin sa ve dir ena mari scope pu ogmant corporate ek personal tax pu bann seki kav peye. Se osi enn lot (additional?) prev ki Ali ankor plis dan fatak.