DESPITE all the propaganda being churned out by SBC every night on our television screens the main factor affecting the price of fuel and the disparities in price between countries is government policy.
According to Airlnc, a company that tracks the cost of living in various places around the world, many European nations tax gasoline heavily, with taxes making as much as 75 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. In Seychelles the tax on fuel exceeds 100 percent. On a litre of diesel which costs SR17.75 at the pump locally the Government is taking SR9.00. This breaks down into SR6.00 for GST, SR2.00 for Trade Tax and SR1.00 for Seypec a company owned entirely by government.
Government policy is in fact responsible for the price of everything in the country from a drawing pin to the price of the two black fuel guzzling jeeps that President Michel uses in his motorcade. However, in the case of the two jeeps it was imported duty free, a privilege accorded only to the rich and powerful in this country.
President Michel in his National Day address last week attempted to distance himself and his government from the hardships the people are having to endure. Try as he may - Mr. Michel cannot divorce himself from this responsibility for a number of reasons. It is his government which has squandered away millions if not billions of the taxpayers' money on failed projects.
Such as the prawn farm on Coetivy, on IDC, on a useless desalination project, 4.5 million dollars to a bogus construction firm in Dubai, etc...Was it not? President Michel who devalued the Seychelles Rupee after promising to the people that he would not.
Above all else it is President Michel who has been at the helm of economic life in this country for a long time; first as Finance Minister and now as President of the Republic. Therefore, it is his government, which is fully responsible for the mismanagement of the local economy and for the high cost of living in the country today.
To blame it all on external factors beyond his control is a fallacy that even a new born child, so to speak, will find hard to believe.