THERE is a need to catagorise and differentiate between the liquor license fees paid by large scale urban business operators and businesses based in rural areas.
This was suggested to Government by Elimi Rokoduru, a participant at the recent post-budget consultation held in Lautoka last week.
Mr Rokoduru said liquor license fees were considered a revenue stream for the government.
“I believe the same licence that’s paid by one operator or one of the hotels out here in the urban sector, this same licence is paid one small operator in the rural if we can look at some balancing on the license fee,” he said.
“It’s unfair to the small operators in the rural areas when they pay the same rate as those in the urban centres.”
Mr Rokoduru said nothing is being done to categorising the license fees for these respective business operators.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad said the fines under the liquor act were currently under review.
“We’ve also approved increasing the LTA fines and over speeding and all that. It’s not prohibitive. It doesn’t deter people to reduce speeding, so $25, $30 they pay and they continue speeding,” he said.
“It’s the same thing with the liquor decree, so we need to raise fines and liquor license as well, so thank you for raising it.”
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated July 7, 2025
