The PTr leader was in front of the press this Saturday 23rd April 2022. He stated that it is important for the government to make a good diagnosis of what is happening in the country right now. Otherwise, the country is heading towards disaster. Navin Ramgoolam believes that the price hike is only a catalyst that has made the vase overflow.
According to Ramgoolam, it is not due to the Covid-19 situation and the war in Ukraine that we are facing such an increase in prices leading Mauritius towards a social crisis. In the contrary, the Ukraine-Russia war has not even started to affect Mauritius. It is rather a cascade of bad economic decisions taken by this government since they took power that led to an increase in prices, thus a social crisis since people are finding it difficult to meet both ends.
He insisted that the government must get hold of itself and face the situation because “it takes a brutal awakening when we are in a mode of denial, when we do as if nothing is happening…“. He appealed to Pravind Jugnauth and Steven Obeegadoo to show that they understand and are well aware of the situation prevailing in the country. “They need to get down to earth and face reality” he said.
It is time to do a good diagnosis and come forth with the right ‘remedies’ to prevent the worse is what Dr Ramgoolam said. He proposed some solutions to face the situation, for example, by removing unnecessary taxation (Tax on petrol/diesel), temporarily decreasing the VAT on cooking gas and petrol/diesel, increasing the minimum wage so that people can buy food, stopping non-priorities projects, stopping wastage of money, nominating potential people at the top of institutions, and indexing pension with the inflation rate, and stopping arbitrary arrests, among others.
