“The budget deficit no longer means anything because there is no budget worthy per say” -This is what the leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), Paul Bérenger, said during the budget debates.
He was to point out that more than Rs 10 billion was taken from the accounts of the Central Electribity Board, the State Bank of Mauritius, the Financial Services Commission and the Mauritius Port Authority (MPA) to finance the budget. “The finance minister has just told us that the budget deficit will be 5% in 2021-2021. The budget deficit will be more than 10%, which is double what the Finance Minister is saying,” he said. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) have said that it is the role of the Central Bank to manage the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) and they have stated that if the government wants to create the MIC, it must be done through the state’s budget.
Regarding the Betamax affair, Paul Bérenger said that the money will eventually come out of the pockets of consumers and taxpayers. When Bramer Bank and BAI were liquidated, the government of the day promised that not one penny of public money would be used to finance the liquidation of the BAI empire. In the end, it cost the state over Rs 20 billion. After BAI, it is now Betamax. After Rs 20 billion, “Rs 6 billion“, said Paul Berenger. The budget deficit will be above 10% of GDP for the new fiscal year.
It is obvious that the public debt has already exceeded 100% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the most severe criticism that the IMF/WB and Moody’s have issued. Foreign debt has reached 30% and “we all know that government guaranteed loans are not included in the public debt to date. This is irresponsible. Estimates show that the public debt will rise from Rs 420 billion to Rs 500 billion by June 2024 and only if the government does not borrow again.”
The Bank of Mauritius and the Ministry of Finance have become linguistic experts. The BoM has issued a statement to say that the Rs 28 billion is considered an advance. It will take almost 100 of dividend from the Bank of Mauritius to arrive at Rs 28 billion.
As for the Current Account and the Balance of Payment, the deficit is increasing year after year. The figures are frightening. There is no doubt that by the end of the year inflation will exceed 5%. The unemployment figure is manipulated. It now exceeds 100,000 unemployed.
The recovery of the economy will be exceedingly difficult, especially in and around the tourism sector. The Minister of Finance is predicting 650,000 tourists in one year, which is half the best figures before Covid-19. This is not possible. “Long-haul travel has been affected and it will not recover easily. Nobody knows what the next variant will be. Sa virus pe ran tout dimoun couyon,” he added. We were told that from 15 July, tourists will have to stay in hotels, and they will be allowed to go to the nearby beaches. Tourists will be allowed to enjoy the sea and the beach, but Mauritians are not allowed to enter the water and enjoy the beach. This cannot continue. “The first phase will be a flop,” said Paul Bérenger. The sugar industry is in a difficult situation. “We appreciate the new method of remuneration for bagasse and the financial support to the farmers but make the WB report public so that workers and unions can study it. We all have a right to the truth. We agree on the phase out of coal, but we need to be more precise,” said the MMM leader.
Speaking about the report of an expert report on electric vehicles, he asked the government to publish the report. “When Minister Ganoo comes and says he has read this report, I don’t really believe him because he would have fallen sick,” he said.
