[Paul Lismore] When the serviteurs du pays of all parties suffer from collective amnesia..

Yes, people, our serviteurs du pays calling themselves 'patriots' but who have been quite busy doing the one thing that is more important than anything else in their sad, miserable lives: lining their pockets with money which should have been returned to the MRA so that  the services that we all rely on can be adequately financed.

I am referring to the most stupid, most selfish, utterly disgusting and corrupt scam implemented by any government around the world: the duty free car system which benefits already rich individuals who need no financial help from all of us in buying the things most of them consider as the visible extension to their tiny penises: a big, brand new car.

It is such a morally and socially reprehensible system on environmental and fiscal grounds that one is tempted to say that only people with sociopathic tendencies could have devised and implemented a system that not only provides the well off with insane privileges that most of them can well afford themselves, but which pisses from a high distance on the poor and those struggling to make a living.

How can it be right, for example, that a Chief Judge who already receives well over Rs 200,000 a month in salary, a chauffeur driven limousine, wonderful per diems and lovely fees for private arbitration etc, also receives at least Rs 22,000 every month from us as Housing allowance? Add to this the Rs 11,000 that other judges receive in housing allowance every month  and you will have to admit that you don't have to be a saint to acknowledge the sheer immorality in this.

Simply, basic humanity ought to tell you that this is wrong, wrong, wrong! Esp as judges benefit from a full pension when they retire, i.e. they receive every month as pension the full amount they were paid in their last month of duty...

Let us look at this duty free car system and ignore for the moment the terrible waste of money that we can't afford as a nation, and which deprives us of the billions of rupees which could have gone to improve the essential services we all need. Let us instead analyse how the rules are being ignored/flouted by our parliamentarians and the others who keep yapping about 'etat de droit', and how this blatant breach of our criminal law will go unpunished as long as we have mercenaries and corrupt bastards successfully conning lepep kouyon for their votes.

The Customs Tariff Act 1970, the Excise Act 1994, and the Mauritius Revenue Act 2004 all make it clear that  any one who obtains an exemption of duty for the purchase of his car by virtue of his post will AUTOMATICALLY be deemed to have undergone a change in the use of the car as soon as he no longer holds the post. Consequently, the person has to refund the "total amount of duty, excise duty, and taxes which would have been payable, together with a penalty not exceeding 50% of the amount due and interest at the rate of 0.5 per month on the amount due..."

Remember, the last Pay Research Bureau Report (PRB) was accepted in toto by this government and the National Assembly and it reaffirms the clause in the CTA, EA, And MRA mentioned in the previous paragraph. I quote:

" 18.2.21 We further recommend that the beneficiary of duty exemption on a car:(a) should reimburse excise duty on a pro-rata basis in case of termination of employment or resignation from office within four years as from the date of purchase of the last duty exempted car.....(c) should pay proportionate duty if the duty exempted car is sold within four years as from the date of purchase in accordance with relevant provisions of the Excise Act;"

 I know that the MRA is over fond of reminding civil servants who resign about the duty free that they must refund on their cars. But is the MRA claiming this refund from everyone except our parliamentarians? I would have advised people to apply to the Equal Opportunities Commission and to demand parity with our serviteurs du pays when it comes to non reimbursement of excess duty, but I am aware that the EOC has been in Intensive Care for quite a while, and the doctors cannot tell whether the few members of staff there are still alive or pretending to be...

But old habits die hard....So, expect our lovely MLAs, ministers, PPS, assorted serviteurs du pays licking their lips at the prospect of buying a duty free limousine just before the next general elections.

In our corrupt island, they will comfort themselves with the knowledge and assurance that the MRA will not bother them about refunding the duty on the cars when we kick most of them out. As things are, the current system and the blind eye of the MRA towards a class of over privileged individuals encourage this absurd situation that allows someone to enjoy duty free facilities today and to resign tomorrow without having to pay anything back...

If the rules apply to everyone else, to the taxi driver who loses his licence and has to repay the duty on his car, why do our serviteurs du pays act as if the law does not apply to them? Worse, what right does the MRA have to apply the law so selectively?

Here is a scenario: If I am a minister or a serviteur du pays at the head of so many useless organisations, I have a chauffeur driven limousine, and I am also entitled due to our corrupt laws to purchase a top of the range limousine of over 2000cc, backed with a loan from my friends at SICOM or the SBM or any bank, at very preferential rates. What is to stop me from using only the chauffeur driven limousine, and to keep my brand new duty free one in the garage for the next 3/4 years? When I sell it, I will get more than I paid for it in the first place! Lovely scam, don't you think? 

Therefore, whenever you feel weak and cannot resist the urge to show undue respect to our serviteurs du pays, people who deserve our vomit over their heads rather than our respect, always remember the words of Friedrich Nietzsche  " The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."