Ministers Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, Bobby Hurreeram and Mahen Seeruttun were at a press conference today at the Sun Trust building.
Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Leela Devi Dookhun-Luchoomun commented on the issue of leaked PSAC questionnaires.
For his part, the Minister of Financial Services, Mahen Seeruttun, commented on two press articles published on 21 and 24 June, in two local newspapers, which repeated an international article, stating that Mauritius is a tax haven. “These press articles are detrimental to our jurisdiction and the Mauritian financial centre. I ask journalists to check their information before writing anything,” he said.
The Financial Services Minister said that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has even “whitelisted” Mauritius on this issue. He said the country meets all the criteria set by the OECD as a country that is not a tax haven and a regime that does not practice “harmful taxes” among others. On the other hand, he stressed that the Mauritian financial sector has been growing, even during the pandemic, namely, 1% in 2020, 4.6% in 2021 and a better growth for the year 2022 is expected.
For his part, Public Infrastructure Minister Bobby Hurreeram did not mince words against the Opposition MPs who were absent during the budget debates. He explained that while government members were hard at work during the Committee of Supplies in Parliament, according to him, the Opposition MPs were discussing among themselves, who is going to stay or not.
Bobby Hurreeram also lamented the fact that there were only 6 Opposition MPs as the Committee of Supplies was winding down in the National Assembly.
On the other hand, the Minister praised the work done by the government backbenchers who, according to him, “put to task” the Ministers by asking various questions on different subjects, as compared to the questions of the Opposition MPs, which, according to Bobby Hurreeram, were simple questions.
