Fiji's Labour party has described the increase in Value Added Tax in the budget on Friday as a devastating blow to the poor, and the low and medium income earners.
VAT will increase by two and a half per cent to 15 per cent and a new 10 per cent Capital Gains Tax will be introduced from February next year.
The tax increases are meant to reduce the government debt which presently stands at nearly 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
Announcing the Budget, the interim Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the debt situation was not an enviable position to be in.
The Labour Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, said that once again the people were being made to pay the price for bad governance and indiscriminate government borrowings.
