By Martha Taumata-Faavae
Former Prime Minister and HRPP opposition leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, cited the time Jesus paid taxes, in response to the very likelihood the FAST Government will cancel ‘faifeau’ taxes his Government imposed.
Tuilaepa conceded that the new Government has the power to rescind the tax laws to free up the ‘faifeau’ from making tax contributions.
“While in Government we followed the teachings of Jesus that it is a sin of omission not to do what must be done and if that means the ‘faifeau’ should pay taxes then it should be done,” Tuilaepa asserted.
“Even Jesus was paying taxes when he was amongst the people of Israel in his human form.”
The loss to the Inland Revenue from the ‘faifeau’ not paying income taxes are yet to be revealed nor how they are likely to make up for the shortfall other than raising taxes .
Tuilaepa held a similar reaction to complaints of the Inland Revenue TIMS tax information collecting system that has not been popular with the local business community.
“All the Government wanted was to have a better idea of the rightful taxes to be claimed, but the more important question is, why has the TIMS system not bankrupted any of the Chinese businesses except for many of our local ones.”
Tuilaepa does not agree as well with many of the post-election analysis that the ‘faifeau taxes’ is responsible for the HRPP downfall.
He holds blame on too many HRPP candidates standing for election and splitting up the HRPP support vote.
“Claims by many including the FAST party that it was the ‘faifeau’ taxes that cost the HRPP the general elections are wrong.
“We fielded more than a 100 candidates for the general elections while FAST entered not even half our of that for the polls.”
Tuilaepa insisted that his party won the general elections with 60 per cent of the total voting turnout making the HRPP their choice of Government.
The focus now for both parties is the upcoming by-elections for the remaining 7 electoral constituencies won by HRPP candidates but declared void by court rulings on election violations.
The onus is on the opposition party to regain their seats. Tuilaepa and the HRPP party have already ventured out to some of the villages in the electoral constituencies that are being contested to campaign for their candidates.
The up close and personal approach was done successfully by the FAST party in the lead up to the general elections.
“Yes FAST started the trend but at first we were reluctant because they were seen dishing out money to the voters and making election promises that to this day they are yet to honour.
“Our village visits is to clarify matters of importance the voters wanted to know more about including false election promises the other side made.”
A clean sweep win by the opposition party would lead to more political uncertainties which the ruling party is fully aware of.
All they will need is to win one or two seats to assure their rule stands for the full 5-year term.