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Budget bludgeon

Premier Ramgoolam's government faces up to European subsidy cuts and Chinese competition

The poorer Hindu voters who brought Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam's Labour Party to power last year see little to celebrate in his government's tough and reform-minded budget officially enacted in the Port Louis parliament last month. Finance Minister Rama Sithanen is scrapping subsidies on imported rice and flour, which will push up food prices sharply. He is also taking on trades unions and civil servants by proposing to shut down loss-making parastatal companies and proposing labour laws to make it easier for firms to hire and fire workers, with wage negotiations based on productivity....

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Budget bludgeon

Premier Ramgoolam's government faces up to European subsidy cuts and Chinese competition

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