HONIARA (Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation / Radio Australia / Pacific Media Watch): Critics voicing outrage at the tax-free salaries for Members of Parliament are "living in an imaginary world", says Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
In a speech last week, he also stood by the Parliamentary Entitlements Commission (PEC) in its decision to award tax-free salaries for Members of Parliament, despite a public assurance he would announce measures to deal with the issue.
Just a day earlier, Sogavare released a statement saying concerns raised by the public on the PEC’s decision to award tax-free salaries to MPs were valid.
He had further stated as a responsible Prime Minister, he was ready to propose measures, supposed to be announced in his speech, that would adequately address these concerns.
But the Prime Minister did not announce any measures, instead supporting the PEC decision.
“Any review for those who will review it, like the TSI (Transparency Solomon Islands), FSII (Forum Solomon Islands International) and others who want to review this please go to the house of a member of parliament and you will just see for yourself how many people these MPs are feeding every day Mr Speaker," said Sogavare.
"I would just like to endorse what’s said on the floor of this Parliament," he continued.
"This is not an exaggeration, Mr Speaker, for a member of Parliament to feed up to 50 people every day."
TSI opposed
Members of Parliament began receiving tax-free salaries as of April this year and Radio Australia reported TSI board member Bob Pollard saying the decision was "absolutely outrageous".
"How can the MPs bear to think that they deserve such a salary?," he told Radio Australia's Liam Fox.
"The simplest solution here is for the PEC to meet and rescind, they have the power to do that and that would be the simplest solution to the disaster that we're in".
He said if the PEC was not willing to take back the decision, legal action would follow and TSI would also be organising a public petition to facilitate the "public anger".
Finance Minister and member of the PEC Rick Hou told Radio Australia this month that he would refuse a tax-free salary.
With this announcement, Pollard suspected that the other members of the comission were "feeling extremely awkward and embarrassed by what they've done".
Peaceful protest
On Friday, activists called on people to wear red t-shirts to show their opposition to the new benefits.
Organiser of the "Be in Red" protest Pitch Lodge told Radio Australia the feeling against the tax-free pay was "escalating" and they were trying to avoid a "violent" and "aggresive" action.
Lodge said they are trying to get the prime minster and the government to listen to the public so there was no "destructive" protesting.
"We are giving the government an alternative to listen to a peaceful protest."
If the government does not listen to the appeals of the public, Lodge said there were people asking for a public march.
Former MP condems
A former MP and businessman has bluntly condemned the MPs new tax exemption privilege describing it as a form of discrimination between the government and ordinary citizens of Solomon Islands.
Responding to the arrangement, Yukio Sato said every Solomon Islands citizen, ordinary employee or MP was duty bound to meet the tax obligation.
Sato pointed out that tax collection was important for the country’s services and no one should be granted special tax fee measures.
“Solomon Islanders will have to pay tax, regardless of them being students or employed people," he said.
"They have the responsibility to pay tax to the country, unless the laws are changed, they will not escape paying taxes."
He also said national leaders needed to think about not paying taxes as it would be discriminatory for the citizens of the country to pay taxes alone.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
