“What are the real figures?” The question has been asked in numerous occasions during the debates yesterday. During his intervention, which he had to shorten after a remark of the Speaker, Nando Bodha insisted that the government has the duty to give the real figures. “It has to tell the truth”, he stated. He claimed that the figures of the public sector debt, on unemployment and on growth did not reflect reality. For the former Minister, government missed a big opportunity to operate a bold paradigm shift and propose a new economic model. He was insisting for a “corruption-free country and a drug-free country” over and above a Covid-free country when the Speaker decided a break.
Before Nando Bodha, it was the turn of the Minister of Commerce to comment the budget. Soodesh Callichurn stated that “what’s good for the State Trading Corporation is good for the country and what’s bad for the STC is bad for our country”. He commended the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance for taking bold measures. For him, the country must get back to work. “It’s no longer a slogan but a necessity”, he said.
Soodesh Callichurn was replying to Mahen Gungapersad, from the Labour Party, who commented the Betamax case. “We, on this side, did not wish such a dreadful event to happen. But it happens because of political vengeance.” He said that after slogans Vire Mam, Riyer Mam and Kot mone fauter Mam, it’s now “Payer Mam”. “It’s called karma”, he says ironically. Mahend Gungaparsad also denounced many measures in the budget as recurrent announcements.
Before Mahend Gungaparsad, Naveena Ramyad, the Chief Whip, stated that “a post-Covid-19 Budget could not have a better foundation” than that of Budget 2021-2022. She insisted that it was a budget based on recovery. She intervened after MMM Karen Foo Kune who insisted that “even prior to Covid 19, Mauritius was on an increasingly fragile trajectory.”
