Parliament passes 10 budget consequential bills

Parliament has passed 10 2024-2025 National Budget consequential bills this morning.

These budget amendment bills include Tax Administration Bill 2009, Income Bill 2015, Value Added Bill 1991, Customs Bill 1986, Customs Tariff Bill 1986, Excise Bill 1986, Airport Departure Bill 1986, Fiji National Provident Fund Bill 2011 and the Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service Bill 2014.

39 MPs voted for the amendment, 14 voted against while 1 abstained from voting.

While tabling the bills, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says in the last budget they introduced a 3 percent import duty on the raw materials and following discussions with manufacturers and exporters, they are are removing the 3 percent duty.

He says with the tourism industry back to normal, the departure tax will increase from $140 to $170 effective from 1st August 2024 and will return to the pre-pandemic rate of $200 from 1st August 2025.

Professor Prasad says in addition, effective from 1st August 2024, the transit hours for departure tax exemption will reduce from 96 hours to 48 hours.

He says to assist the construction sector in light of the high building and material costs, the fiscal duty on prefabricated buildings (consisting of prefabricated buildings of wood, modular building units of steel and other prefab buildings) will be reduced from 32 percent to 5 percent, while fiscal duty on steel structures or articles of iron will be maintained at 5 percent. He says they are increasing the excise duty on alcohol and tobacco products by 5 percent, while duty on carbonated or sugar-sweetened beverages will be maintained at 40 cents per litre/kg.

The Deputy Prime Minister says the threshold for personal imports will be reduced to $1,000 and 15 percent VAT will be applied.

He says they are closing this loophole as some businesses had started abusing this.

Professor Prasad says for the hotel incentives, they are extending the SLIP tax holiday to investors who acquire existing hotels and undertake renovations and refurbishments of more than $50 million.

He says this will support major investments like the Crowne Plaza and Wananavu Resort.

The Deputy Prime Minister says in addition, the standard allowance for renovations and extension of hotels will be reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent, similar to pre-COVID levels.

He also says a 200 percent deduction will be allowable for donations of over $10,000 towards the 2031 Pacific Games.

Professor Prasad says similar to the tax incentive provided to the Fijian Drua, a 13-year tax holiday, duty concessions on imported sports equipment and 200 percent tax deduction will be extended to Fiji National Rugby League.

He says the TFR incentive will be amended to allow existing iTaukei companies to qualify for the TFR incentive in the tax free regions for new investments above $250,000.

The Deputy Prime Minister says they are also making changes to the FNPF Act to restore the tripartite spirit in the Board composition of FNPF to include a worker representative and an employer representative.

He says they are also making legal provisions to cater for minors to become FNPF members, which means everybody can be a member.

Professor Prasad says to strengthen compliance, the penalty for non-payment of contributions by an employer will be changed from $100 per employee per month to 10 percent of the balance of unpaid contributions for an employee each month.

He says the Bill also accommodates FNPF member reaching entitlement age, to be able to transfer some or all of the amounts withdrawn to an existing FNPF member.

He also also highlighted that the TSLS Budget Amendment Bill mandates Tertiary Education Institutions to inform TSLS of “at risk students” who are not meeting expected academic requirements.

The Deputy Prime Minister says this will ensure that they are able to have an early detection and thus an early intervention to improve completion rates.

The National Budget comes into effect on the 1st of August.