Newsletter

The State Trading Corporation will launch a restricted bidding exercises for the procurement of – (i) 50 metric tons (MT) of Instant Full Cream Milk Powder from a shortlist of eight potential suppliers who can supply milk powder of New Zealand origin; and (ii) 95 MT of Soyabean Oil packed in 1 Litre PET (plastic) bottle from a list of 11 potential suppliers from Egypt. These commodities would be imported on a pilot basis.

In the proposed revamping process of the Mauritius National Identity Cards (MNIC) System, Government will also upgrade the System to a state-of-the-art one which will provide a wider spectrum of customised e-services thereby further facilitating the daily activities of citizens. Such Smart cards are already being used in countries like Belgium, Finland, Germany, Estonia and France.

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth told Parliament that wide consultations are presently being held with all concerned stakeholders.  Considerable progress has been made with regard to the preparation of the specifications and the procurement strategy to be adopted on the basis of the existing MNIC system, procurement legislation, and the judgments of the Supreme Court and the Privy Council as well as the European Data Protection Supervisor Opinion 7/2018 of August 2018, he added.  The new system is expected to be operational by December 2023, he stated.

He said there is need to revamp the MNIC system since the usual lifetime of such IT equipment is between five to seven years. Hence, after almost eight years of operation, it has become necessary to revamp the existing MNIC system as the current hardware and software of the whole system will soon reach their end-of-support and end-of-life, he said.

Two men were sentenced to one week in prison for leaving their quarantine center without authorization on Friday, July 2, 2021. They were taken to Court in Flacq, where they got one week in jail for leaving their quarantine center. To date, three people have been sentenced for this offence.

An Amnesty Scheme for Planters, Breeders and Fishers facing difficulties in repaying their long overdue loans at the Development Bank of Mauritius Ltd (DBM), has been approved by the government. It would apply to planters, breeders and fishers who have availed of loan facilities of up to Rs 200,000 and which are more than ten years old. The details of these loans are as follows – (a) for loans up to Rs 100,000, DBM would waive full amount of capital, interests and penalties; (b) for loans above Rs 100,000 and up to Rs 200,000, DBM would waive all interests and penalties; (c) for beneficiaries who have availed of loans in the range of Rs100,001 up to Rs200,000 and who have passed away, DBM would write off all their liabilities on a case to case basis; and (d) for loans granted to individual fishers in Rodrigues, through the Nassola and United Cooperative Credit Unions, DBM would write off the total liabilities. The Scheme would be effective as from 02 July 2021.

60,000 doses du vaccin Spoutnik V arrivent à Maurice ce mercredi 30 juin. Ce vaccin contre la Covid-19 est le seul qui requiert une seule dose. Ainsi, 60,000 Mauriciens seront vaccinés avec cette production russe.

Statistics Mauritius on Friday reported that the number of tourist arrivals decreased from 304,842 in the first quarter of 2020 to 2,772 in the first quarter of 2021.

In its latest bulletin, it said tourist arrivals by air decreased from 275,418 in the first quarter of 2020 to 2,648 in the first quarter of 2021 while those arriving by sea decreased from 29,424 to 124.

Ou est la compétition ? Pourquoi Moroil détient-t-il le monopole ?

Depuis lundi matin, Moroil, seul et unique importateur de matières premières pour produire de l’huile comestible pour le marché mauricien, a ajusté à la hausse ses prix dans la fourchette de 10% à 18,6% — sur ses huiles fabriquées localement. Cette entreprise  avance que les coûts des matières premières entrant dans la production de l’huile comestible ont connu une hausse de 51% depuis l’année dernière en raison du coronavirus qui sévit dans le monde et qui affecte tant la santé que l’économie mondiale.

De l’autre côté, le gouvernement a annoncé, vendredi dernier, après sa réunion hebdomadaire du conseil des ministres “the imposition of a one-year safeguard measure in the form of a 10 percent customs duty on imports of edible oil (soyabean, sunflower and blended oil) from COMESA countries.” Ce, à partir du 22 février 2021.

Dans les milieux concernés, l’on soutient que cette démarche vise à protéger l’industrie locale, dans ce cas, le Moroil, qui a augmenté d’entre 10 et 18,6% les prix de ses produits tandis que ses compétiteurs, s’il y en a encore, se voient augmenter les leurs par 10% ou plus à cause de l’imposition de10% de droits de douane sur les produits importés des pays de la COMESA.  Mais sait-il que cette décision s’attaque directement aux poches des consommateurs car ce sont eux qui devront, non seulement, payer leur huile comestible, importé ou pas, plus chers, mais aussi, avec l’effet domino que cette hausse aura sur de la nourriture – dholl puri, farata, gato piman, et autres gato delwil, etc, sans oublier notre fameux briani, dans la fabrication desquels on utilise beaucoup d’huile. En ce faisant, il est en train de tondre les consommateurs au nombre de 1,3 million au nom de la protection d’une seule entreprise locale et d’une centaine d’emplois. Où est l’intérêt de la population ?

Questionnons la State Trading Corporation (STC), lui, qui a été créé par le gouvernement, il y a de nombreuses années, dans le but de briser le monopole des entreprises opérant dans des secteurs qui auraient des conséquences néfastes sur la bourse des consommateurs, tels l’importation du riz et de la farine, entre autres, produits pétroliers. Pourquoi n’agit-t-elle pas ? Que font ses directeurs nommés par le gouvernement ? Sont-ils si occupés avec l’achat d’équipements médicaux qu’ils n’ont pas le temps de s’occuper de la population ? N’ont-ils pas vu venir cette hausse des prix de l’huile comestible ? Pourquoi le Moroil détient-il le monopole dans ce domaine ? Pourquoi n’y-a-t-il pas d’autres producteurs de l’huile comestible à Maurice?

Pour information de la STC: lors de la présentation de son budget pour 2021/2022, le gouvernement indien a annoncé qu’il compte introduire la compétition, là où il y a un monopole qui se fait au détriment de sa population, surtout ceux de la classe pauvre et moyenne. Pourquoi n’inspirons-nous pas de cette démarche à Maurice ? Ca aurait aidé le marché à jouer sur les prix des produits essentiels au bénéfice des consommateurs, dont les 250,000 ou plus de senior citizens, qui n’ont pas obtenu, comme c’est le cas tous les ans, leur part de Rs 375, découlant de la compensation salariale payée aux salariés, à la fin de  janvier dernier.

Suttyhudeo Tengur Président

Latest developments regarding the construction of the National Wholesale Market at Five Ways, Belle Rive and the arrangements being made for its operations by the Agricultural Marketing Board thus entailing the closure of all regional auction markets.

 The National Wholesale Market project has four main objectives – (a) to improve the financial livelihood of the planters; (b) to provide quality produce at an affordable price to the consumers; (c) to ensure more transparency and traceability of the source of agricultural produce traded at the National Wholesale Market; and (d) the creation of a modern marketing infrastructure for the handling of fruits and vegetables which would be compliant with relevant legislations and agricultural and food norms/standards. The building which has a surface area of 35,000 m² would provide space for wholesalers as well as for a Planters’ Corner.

Mauritius will on Tuesday 26 January 2021 start the Covid-19 vaccination campaign by vaccinating its front-liners, namely health care workers and airport employees who work in close contact with passengers, after receiving a donation of 100,000 doses of Covidshield  vaccine Friday from India.

All staff of the five regional hospitals in the island will be vaccinated as from next week.

 Mauritius has received a donation of 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccine donated by India that will be used to vaccinate a first group of 50,000 front-liners. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth was at the airport to receive the vaccines that came on board an Air Mauritius flight from India. He said that the vaccination campaign that will begin shortly will allow a review of the conditions of entry of passengers in the island-nation and the tourism sector to restart.

“The objective is to vaccinate more than 60% of the population in order to achieve collective immunity in the country”, he indicated.

Meanwhile, a National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines has been set up in Mauritius. The Plan highlights the regulatory preparedness, the planning and coordination of the introduction of the vaccine, its supply chain management, service delivery and healthcare waste management and includes human resources management and training.

At its weekly meeting Friday, the Cabinet took note of the alarming situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world and the spread of the new variants of the virus.

It said in a communiqué that with regard to Mauritius, no local case has been recorded since 26 November 2020. As at 22 January 2021, 556 cases of COVID-19 had been registered. There were currently 22 active imported cases of COVID-19 in Mauritius.