Bills Passed To Strengthen Commercial Environment
Parliament yesterday enacted 20 consequential bills to be put into immediate effect under the provisions of the 2017-2018 Budget.
The Minister for Economy and Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum while speaking on his motion said Government had introduced a number of fiscal reforms and policies as outlined in the Budget address.
As part of the changes, he added they wanted to ensure that duty reductions were being passed on to ordinary Fijians so there will be an across the board increase on penalty provisions that acted as a deterrent to non-compliance .
“I would like to request members of the House to look at how these bills will actually provide a robust commercial environment which takes into the account the fact we need to allow some of the potentials and how it will affect ordinary Fijians,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
The bills passed are:
Water Resource Tax Bill 2017
Superyacht Charter Bill 2017
Service Turnover Tax Bill 2017
Income Tax Bill 2017
Tax Administration Bill 2017
Pensions Bill 2017
Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Bill 2017
Stamp Duty Bill 2017
Financial Management Bill 2017
Land Transport Bill 2017
Value Added Tax Bill 2017
Exercise Bill 2017
Omnibus Electronic Fare Ticketing Bill 2017
Environmental Levy Bill 2017
Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority Bill 2017
Customs Bill 2017
Customs Tariff Bill 2017
Accident Compensation Bill 2017
Commerce Commission Budget Amendment Bill 2017
Regulations and Building Permits Bill 2017
SODELPA Opposition MP, Semesa Karavaki said it was quite a big number of bills that they were expected to cover within a short period of time and that some were really not related to the Budget.
National Federation Party Opposition MP, Biman Prasad said they understood the meaning of consequential bills to the Budget that didn’t stop Parliament from debating more on the bills.
Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Jone Usamate said the points raised by Opposition MPs on the consequential bills were irritating.
Edited by Karalaini Waqanidrola
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