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.