A Pacific solution for a Pacific problem

Editorial

IF ever there was a need for Pacific Island people - indige nous or otherwise - to start taking charge of their future, it is now. Apart from when indigenous people would sell their land for a feather or for a piece of tin, at no other time was the Pacific so ignorant and helpless in the face of western culture and so-called civilisation. The experience with huge organisations, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, is proving to be too much for many island coun tries. In all truth, the Pacific is once again at the mercy of outside influ ences. Even if the governments of certain countries privately feel that imposing more taxes on their people will be detrimental, they are now forced to introduce more taxes such as VAT and import duties to col

lect enough revenue to pay back their huge overseas debts. In Fiji, Value-Added- Taxation was introduced because the gov ernment had to find another way of getting enough money to clear its growing deficit.

Implementing such a taxation scheme, however, has proved to be very hard.

Without the proper resources, trained per sonnel and expertise to combat the huge tax-dodgers, it is the ordinary person on the street that has ended up footing the VAT bills.

On top of that the people of Fiji still get their normal (pre-VAT) tax, called Pay As You Earn. So they are really taxed twice.

Additionally, this year a tax on interest earned through savings is directly deduct ed from Fiji bank accounts, water rates have increased, and devaluation has increased the price of food stuff on the shelves.

The Fiji government has repeatedly

said it is implementing certain taxes to get funds from the rich and leave the poor alone. Yet it refuses to introduce a capital gains tax, which would put several real estate mercantile parliamentarians on the taxpayer list.

Anyone who says people in the Pacific are better off today than ever, can’t have had to close their business because of increased taxes, or return to the village because of redundancy, or take children out of school because they cannot afford to keep them there. Indeed, the majority of people in the Pacific who live such lives are listened to only around election time.

Every other time, it is outside forces such as banks, or lenders, or multination als that are listened to. It is time that a Pacific solution was found for a Pacific problem. If not, the Pacific Meltdown will not be just an economic one, but cultural and social as well. ■