Flour Mills of Fiji Limited has now announced that they are putting 30 million dollars worth of projects on hold due to the duties and tariffs levied by the interim government.
FMF chairman Hari Punja said that he had already spent 3 million dollars on the setting up of a new brewery and now has to pay fines amounting to about half a million dollars for cancelling the project.
However, Punja said he cannot go ahead with his new projects as it would be foolish to do so after the recent decisions made by the Interim Finance Minister.
On the other hand, Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry said no one is stopping Punja from starting off his new projects and the FMF chairman should understand that the interim government also has to take into account how the poor can be assisted.
Hari Punja also said that although he has raised all these concerns, Chaudhry has not responded to any of the grievances raised.
But Chaudhry said Punja’s claims are totally misleading.
The Flour Mills of Fiji Limited has also reiterated that the group will scale down its operations of two of its milling factories, Rice Company of Fiji and Pea Industries Limited, due to the drastic changes in import duty on rice and peas.
Chaudhry said the interim government had to reduce the duty on imported rice as majority of the rice consumed in Fiji is imported. He said a similar step was taken for imported peas and companies like FMF should understand the interim government's decision to assist the poor in the country.
FMF Puts Projects On Hold
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