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Mauritius: Review of the Week
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L'Express (Port Louis)
4 January 2008
Posted to the web 4 January 2008
Port Louis
Price of bread to go up. Bad news for households The price of flour will go up by about 20 %. Although the government partly subsidises the commodity, it can't absorb the total amount of the rise of some 70% on the world market. The cabinet should also approve the increase of the price of bread by 10 to 20% in the coming weeks. An increase in the price of other products made with flour like farata or dholl puri is bound to follow. The prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, announced in his New Year message that the government cannot afford to increase subsidies, which already amount to Rs 400 million.
Taxing rights with India threatened. The Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between India and Mauritius is under threat once again. The Indian minister of Foreign affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, who was in Mauritius recently, expressed his government's fears about maintaining such an agreement to the Mauritian authorities. This agreement, which grants Mauritius taxing rights on financial transactions between the two countries, appears to be a loss of earnings for India. The Indian government suffers from a lot of pressure by the media and the opposition to review the treaty despite Mauritian reassurances that the Financial Services Act now gives a legal framework to the business of offshore companies registered in Mauritius.
Water still in the red. Despite the heavy rains that have watered the west region of the island at the beginning of the week, this will unfortunately not be enough to get us out of the severe situation the country is in. We are undergoing a period of severe drought and now that the period of festivities is nearly over, the Central Water Authority (CWA) will resume its drastic water cuts throughout the island. Just before the rains in the west, the CWA was complaining that the country had only 2 months of reserve in water supply. This may not be very different now. The cooperation of each citizen to save water is more than ever a must
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