[Document] « “Green, agile & inclusive budget”

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In this pre election year, the Government through its Minister of Finance has cleverly elaborated a long list of measures for all segments of the population, as well as most sectors of our economy. None can complain about measures that would make their life more difficult. Most individuals see an improvement in their disposable income and we reach the psychological bar of MUR 15,000 per month as minimum guaranteed income.

Strong signals on today’s priority of being GREEN: a million new trees for public spaces, the pulling down of the eyesore Emmanuel Anquetil building from the 1960s to be replaced by a mini forest in the heart of Port Louis, solar energy, coastline protection, plastic bottle recycling, maintaining negative excise duty on electric vehicles and introducing much needed cycle lanes on new roads. All give a clear sense of direction towards building a more sustainable island.

AGILE because Minister Padayachy manages to generously increase most allocations, some substantially for those most needy, while making no changes to the corporate tax regime and withdrawing the highly criticized Solidarity Levy, albeit at a midway point by raising the highest income tax rate from 15% to 20%. Agile also as we see a reduction in budget deficit from 3.9% to 2.9%, GDP growth targeted at 8% and falling unemployment. Public debt falling to 79% this month with a target of 71.5% in a year’s time.
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