The Minister of Finance launched the debates on the Supplementary Appropriation (2020-2021) Bill, which is an additional budget of Rs 23.6 billion, which the Parliament is requested to vote. He put the blame on the Covid-19 pandemic and Betamax for the present economic situation. Renganaden Padayachy explained that Rs 9.2 billion have been paid to the National Resilience Fund for the payment of the one-off grant to the self-employed and government assistance to workers and self-employed in March/April. In addition, Rs 4 billion were used for economic recovery and Rs 4.6 billion for the payment of damages to Betamax. The remaining sum, a total of Rs 6 billion, was used to clear long-standing arrears of public bodies, the purchase of vaccines and other pandemic-related expenses.
The Leader of the Opposition was the next to intervene. He said that he concurs with the payment of Rs 4,6 billion to Betamax. He added that the special funds at the disposal of the Government will be enough to meet these additional expenses. For him, the government is building a war chest in view of the next general elections. Xavier-Luc Duval laid emphasis on the “strong and albeit unprecedented” devaluation of the rupee. “Our currency”, he added, “magically depreciated with two days left in the fiscal year. Since the last general elections, the rupee has lost 16 per cent of its value against the dollar, 25 per cent against the euro and 26 per cent against the pound sterling. This depreciation serves the Bank of Mauritius, as its reserves will be revalued”, he said.
According to him, because of this depreciation, the deficits will disappear from the accounts of the Central Bank. For the opposition leader, the devaluation is a big blow to consumers “It is like undressing St. Peter to dress St. John. The Bank of Mauritius is being undressed to embellish the government’s accounts. The minister is excellent at this strategy,” he added.
