Showing posts with label Trade deficit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trade deficit. Show all posts

Friday, July 16, 2010

Flat Tax Spins Public Finances Out of Control

That's because the robust growth rates that were needed to sustain the 15% flat tax of Dr. KonnTu and his Bretton-Woods-minted charge nurse never arrived. See, as fiscal receipts depend on growth rates and effective tax rates you can only slash the latter if the former are much higher. Otherwise there won't be any money to solve important national problems or debt levels will spin out of control. A flat-tax also brutally increases the divide between the haves and have-nots.

Unsurprisingly Ministers of the last government have said in private that they were consistently told that there was no money to do anything right from the beginning. So nothing much was done and Mauritius in 2010 is a less competitive place than it was back in July 2005. People have also become poorer and many have lost faith in the future of their country and in their own.

Given that Mauritius will not see any robust growth rates anytime soon matters will get worse and beyond any political repair. Which is why Pravind Jugnauth has to present a new budget. Right away.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Trade Deficit Highlights Sithanen's Failure

We've been paying for imports we really don't need by selling our land. That's as unsustainable as the combination of flat-tax with worst growth rates in decades. Besides growth rate isn't a comprehensive enough performance metric. That's why we need a sea change in our economic policies. And we need it fast.