High taxation rates in the past resulted in people hiding their revenues, says member of Parliament Jone Usamate.
He said this while responding to Opposition parliamentarian Viliame Gavoka, who questioned Government’s taxation policies.
“One of the problems that we had in Fiji, there was so much of our economy that was in the black economy, because your taxation rates were high, people were hiding their revenue,” he said.
“I remember as a former minister for employment, we used to walk into shops, and these companies would have two sets of books for the wages, one that they show others and the others that they keep for themselves.
“And this was happening across the board.
“So one of the things that Government did was reduce the taxation rates so people would say, ‘okay, the taxation rates are so low, why don’t we just show true books’, and that’s what happened.
We’ve shed light to all of this and black economy has sort of dissipated over the years.
“And if you look at a lot of the countries around the world that are really great — Singapore, Mauritius, you will find that the company taxation rates are low, it’s not just a company taxation rate on profit, but also taxation rates in other areas.”
He said if the Government introduced a special resource tax as suggested by Mr Gavoka, overseas companies would not invest in the country and there would be no new employment opportunities for the locals.
