Business Mauritius – Anil Currimjee: “Social measures have a cost”

The business community held a press conference on Friday June 7, 2024 following the presentation of the 2024-25 Budget. The members of Business Mauritius delivered their immediate reactions, expressing their satisfaction and the shortcomings noted at first glance in the measures revealed.

After the grand oral presentation by Renganaden Padayachy which lasted more than two hours, representatives of the various sectors of Business Mauritius met in Port-Louis. In front of the press, they briefly commented on some of the measures of the 2024-25 Budget. Were they seduced by the speech of the Minister of Finance?

Anil Currimjee, president of Business Mauritius, believes that the Budget aligns with the business community on certain national priorities, particularly with regard to climate change, the ease of doing business and the workforce. of work. He underlined the relevance of investment measures. However, he believes that reflection must also focus on productivity and added value given that the measures will entail significant additional costs.

“We have not yet carefully studied the annexes and the document. At first glance, we are satisfied that the national priorities that we mentioned appear in the Budget. I am thinking here of climate change, human capital and even sustainable development. The announcement of a Climate and Sustainability Fund is very important for both a company and a society. Governance is very important and the fund will be managed by a public-private committee. Despite a cost to business profits, if it is well managed, it will be money well spent and invested,” he told Défi Plus.

However, he does not hide his fears which are linked to social measures, although he concedes that they are important given the context. We must realize, he said, that these social measures have a cost. “We should see how to increase added value and productivity. These are universal social measures. We should perhaps start thinking about targeting some of them. The priority will now be to work together to implement them with the best possible results,” added Anil Currimjee.

How to support social measures? We understand the need at Business Mauritius to increase income, by increasing productivity, wealth creation and added value. The idea is to ensure that social policies support the economic fabric and guarantee a favorable and sustainable environment in the long term for all stakeholders. This will require consideration of more targeted measures, particularly regarding upward revisions to the universal pension, says Business Mauritius, “which already mobilizes a significant percentage of state revenue”.

The representative of the business community in no way minimizes the need to analyze the increase in the cost of doing business linked to certain measures to understand the effect on companies of different sizes. Hence the planned in-depth analysis of Business Mauritius, particularly in the annexes. The goal is to provide its members with a deep understanding of the impact of budgetary measures on the business community.

Kevin Ramkaloan, Chief Executive Officer of Business Mauritius, said he was generally satisfied with the Budget. The measure linked to the creation of a fund for climate adaptation will, according to him, represent an additional cost for business. However, he believes that it is a necessary approach that is part of a long-term economic strategy for sustainable development. “This is an important public-private collaboration. We must ensure that this measure bears fruit by strengthening the country's capacity to address climate change,” he argued.