University of Fiji vice-chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem disagrees with certain taxation recommendations made by the Fiscal Review Committee, in particular, bringing down the personal income tax threshold to $16,000 and the removal of zero-VAT from essential items.
Prof Shameem said the university was in favour of keeping the personal income threshold at a $30,000.
“They would rather like to get $30,000 salary than a $60,000 salary because, at $30,000, they won’t be taxed,” she said.
“So, when it gets to $16,000, I am expecting a lot of my staff to leave. That’s how we’ll get to have brain drain, skilled people moving away.
“So that’s one thing I don’t agree with.” Regarding the removal of zero-VAT from essential items, Prof Shameem said the World Bank provided a scenario in that VAT removal would have more people in poverty.
“Then, you take the money out and pay more assistance. That’s a never-ending cycle. That’s not going to work. So, the World Bank’s recommendation either, we don’t accept at all.”
She said Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) needed to start looking at how they would reform the taxation regime so they did not tax people who couldn’t afford to pay taxes.
“University has got the circular economy philosophy. We are not moving away from that.
“We are not saying that put that on the backburn and we’ll go along the Government’s idea. “We are using the circular economy to continue to push the government to reform the taxation policy because that’s what it is.
“So, the idea is that we should not charge income tax anymore because labour is a renewable source.”
