“It’s a government that is permanently campaigning for the next elections,” said Xavier-Luc Duval, the opposition leader, at a press conference a few minutes after the budget speech. According to him, instead of addressing the real problem, the Minister of Finances presented a populist budget. For Xavier Duval, the government has made no provision for the creation and maintenance of jobs in this difficult economic situation. He said that while the unemployment rate among young people is 33%, the finance minister decided to offer any foreign student who studied in Mauritius a work permit for ten years.
According to him, the finance minister completely ignored the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The leader of MMM, Paul Bérenger said it was a missed opportunity to tell the truth to the population. “It was,” he said, “an opportunity to restructure and reform our economy. But unfortunately, the numbers would have been manipulated.”
Roshi Bhadain, the leader of the Reform Party, went back to the figures. He pointed out that according to the data of the Ministry of Finance, the ‘Tax on Good Services’ in 2020-2021 was Rs 55 billion and for the year 2021-2022, it will be 75 billion.
For his part, Nando Bodha stressed that there is a lack of responsibility on the part of the government and the Minister of Finance in the face of economic issues. He added that there is no recovery, no reform and no rigor which are three aspects that the Minister of Finance had mentioned. He also argues that bold measures should be taken to revive the textile, tourism and financial sectors.
