Well done, Samoa!

Re: I.M.F positive about Samoa’s economy

If the I.M.F came out and gave a negative report, all you people here on this comments section would be dancing and jumping up and down saying “see, I told you Samoa is in deep trouble and now the I.M.F says the same thing”. It would have been blasted around the editorial pages with a big headline “IMF gives a big fat fail to Samoa’s economy”.

However, what we have here is the I.M.F giving a glorious report card to Samoa’s resilient and growing economy. Praise be to God and to Stui’s government, especially new finance minister Sili Epa Tuioti from Salelologa Savaii for their fine stewardship of the good ship Samoa over the past year.

The growth stats for Samoa’s GDP is 6% over the past year and now in the budget just announced yesterday, Sili was able to give a 100% tax cut to the lowest wage workers in the formal economy. 

Furthermore, the budget introduced 50% tax credit for all the exporters whose profits remain in Samoa. Wonderful. Furthermore, Education has received a massive boost in the latest budget with an allocation of over $100 million ST. That is the largest funding for the Education sector that I can remember. It is a massive boost.

It is good news that he is going after the public service to improve efficiencies and to make sure all the tax that should be paid is being paid. We all know there are people not paying their fair share. 

Over the next year, I expect the faifeau to start paying their tax. 

Sili also signalled that the government would be looking at tightening up the tax system so some tax deductibles will be ended. I like the strategy here. The strategy is to get more out of the public service and to rein in inefficiencies to get more revenue rather than increasing taxes on the ordinary worker.

 

PS Jeffrey

Samoa Observer

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