Consumer Council calls for Govt to increase duties and taxes on unhealthy goods ahead of 2017/2018 National Budget

As the Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum gets ready to deliver the 2017/2018 National Budget address at 7.30 tonight, the Consumer Council is calling on the government to increase duties and taxes on unhealthy goods and reduce duties and taxes on healthy goods.

At the request of kidney patients, the Council’s suggestion is to increase the price of sugar and salt by 5 cents per kilogram to generate revenue that can go towards subsidising the cost of dialysis.

The council says statistics on kidney disease show an alarming 1 in every 4 deaths in Fiji attributed to kidney diseases.

The fact that 600 people suffer from or are deemed vulnerable to the disease is even more worrying.

However, the major concern for the Council is the exorbitant high costs of dialysis treatment.

A kidney patient in Viti Levu needs a minimum of $39,000 a year to survive whereas a patient in Vanua Levu needs $23,400. With the national average income per capita at around $18,000, the council says it is almost impossible for the average person to fork out such amounts to survive.

The Consumer Council in its attempt to promote healthy living requests the government to increase duty on ‘unhealthy’ food options while placing certain ‘healthy’ food options under price control.

Presently, the healthy food options such as parboiled rice, brown rice, chakki atta and whole meal bread are more expensive and not under price control while the unhealthy food options such as white flour, white rice and white bread are cheaper and placed under price control. 

Consumer Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Premila Kumar says placing healthier food options under price control will allow  consumers to have access to healthier choices at an affordable price which can assist in combating lifestyles diseases. 

Meanwhile the council has requested the Government to expand the powers of the Real Estate Licensing Board beyond its current function of licensing the real estate agents. 

The council has reason to believe that certain players in the  industry manipulate prices of properties and even do not disclose the prices of properties put on sale.

In one of its study on real estate practices, the council noted that quite a considerable number of properties out in the market did not have  a stated price.

Real Estate Agents are either asking for price offers or calling for auctions.

The Council is requesting for policy change where REALB registers all properties listed by the agents and also records the actual price the property was sold in different suburbs or regions that can be made available online to the public.

Kumar says such information will assist consumers to make offers.