The Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill introduced in the second reading in the National Assembly by Finance Minister Renganaden Padayachy was passed on Friday. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, in the absence of the Prime Minister, moved a motion for the adjournment of Parliament for Tuesday, October 18.
The Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is a Bill put forward to support the budgetary measures. In the absence of a PNQ in the parliamentary session on Friday, the Leader of the Opposition opposed the Finance Minister, Dr. Renganaden Padayachy.
The Finance Minister made a summary of the Explanatory Notes of the Finance Bill during his presentation. But the Opposition Leader believes that the government rushed to pass the Finance Bill as it was “embarrassed to answer parliamentary questions“. He deplored the fact that it was only on Thursday 28th July that the Parliamentary Opposition was made aware of this “extremely important document“. He hammered on the errors contained in this Bill, which covers 82 bills, especially the old age pension at Rs 13,500 on which the minister of Finance spoke last Wednesday at a FSC event in Balaclava, evoking an error. It was planned that the old age pension would be increased to Rs 13,500 on 01 July 2023, but this will be done in July 2024.
For XLD, “there has been so much rush and as a result, this Bill contains major errors. If we had not reminded the Finance Minister that the pension would be increased not to Rs 13500 but to Rs 14500 by July 1, 2023, he would not have known. He said he would check because he was not aware of it and Rs 14500 seemed like a lot.”
The Leader also lamented that “it is a rush not only to introduce this law but to pass this law I presume today itself or after the summer recess“. The National Assembly will be on holiday for next three months.
