‘Ice cream seller’ Calls for Cheaper Goods

A Nadi ice cream confectioner, Suresh Kumar is calling on Government to lower the prices of goods and foods in the 2024-2025 National Budget.

Mr Kumar, 36, who left school in the then Class Five to help harvest sugarcane to support his family, said reducing food cost would help people at grassroots level survive.

He has been a mobile ice cream confectioner for five years.

He is a familiar face along Votualevu to Nadi Town pushing his ice cream cart daily.

“It is hard to earn good profits from small businesses like mine. The price of ice cream is expensive. I ask this Government to please think of us. This is our bread and butter. My family survives on the income I get from this,” he said.

“If the prices of items go up, it will affect everybody, especially us with small businesses.”

Meanwhile, bus driver Amitesh Lal, 28, has urged Government to consider the salaries and working conditions of bus drivers in the budget allocation.

“Sometimes we work for 12 hours, and our pay is not enough compared to the hours we worked. We also need a pay rise,” Mr Lal said.

“Being a bus driver for five years has not been easy. We also get threatened by angry passengers. At the end of the day, we have to endure those situations to put food on the table for our families,” he added.

A mother of six, Alisi Coqe is also hopeful for a pay rise.

She worked in a garment factory for years and decided to work as a security guard after her family moved from Lautoka to Nadi.

“The cost of living at this time in Fiji, especially in Nadi, is not easy to meet. I put my hope in this Government that it will think of us in this National Budget and if it can increase our rate to at least $5 an hour,” Ms Coqe, 43, said.

“I sacrifice coming to work early every day and committed to the work that I do because I know that at the end of the week, that pay will meet my family’s needs.”

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