Fiji will “soon become like Russia under Putin” and “a police state”, says Opposition Whip Ro Filipe Tuisawau.
He made the comment during debate on the amendments to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2004 which was passed in Parliament on Thursday.
Ro Filipe said the ‘onerous’ reporting requirement under the Act would increase costs for the already struggling public.
“Banks and non-bank financial institutions will have to get extra stuff plus change their banking software as I’ve already mentioned, to have automatic flagging of transactions to $5000,” Ro Filipe said.
He said the cost of making the changes would be passed onto customers. Ro Filipe said Government continued to make life harder for everyone including banks, non-financial institutions and ordinary people who were already burdened with the high cost of living.
“Again, demonstrating that the FijiFirst Government is out of touch with reality.
“That’s the reality of the matter. The reality is that Fiji is now moving to a police state where monitoring and surveillance is becoming an everyday occurrence. “Soon it’ll become like Russia under Putin.
“That’s the problem, that’s the way we are going.”
