THE Government (particularly President Michel) keep telling us that we are having great difficulty finding the required foreign exchange to import fuel. The recent figures coming out of State House and Liberty House are US$60 million will be needed for 2008.
On the surface, it appears a serious problem for the country. What we have discovered, however, is that this is one more occasion when the government is crying wolf in order to get the sympathy of the people and some foreigners, especially the unwary oil rich Arab country, to divert attention from the real problem of their poor economic management record.
The accompanying table exposes the myth and shows how the Government, under the leadership of President, has once too often misled the people of Seychelles on the true state of affairs of our nation's finances.
Column A is self explanatory. Column B is the total rupee value of imported fuel and other oil products as declared by SEPEC to customs for each quarter starting in 2006. Column C is the cumulative total of import value for each consecutive 4 quarters in a row. Four quarters is one year.
Column D is the value in rupees of re-exports of fuel to ships and aircraft, also as declared to customs. Column E, like Column C, is the cumulative total of four consecutive quarters to give us an annual value each time.
Column F is the difference between column C and column E. That difference is the additional amount of foreign exchange that the country needed to find to pay for our net import needs for a full year. In other words this is the value of the net consumption of fuel for which we would need to find its foreign currency equivalent. To get an idea of the amount of dollars needed see column G. We have used a fixed exchange rate of R5.50, which was the rate of exchange for the US dollar until October 2007.
Our figures show clearly that our government has been crying wolf in respect of the importation of fuel. As at September 2007, we needed to find just over US$ 4000 per month in additional foreign exchange to cover domestic consumption. Surely we can find that amount of money in the banking system? This money is equivalent to the travel allowance of ten persons per month.