Not too long ago
Minister Adam announced that Seychelles Gross National Income (GNI) was in the
region of $14,000 per capita and in the same breath he said that in a recent
census of household income it emerged that just over 39% of the population live
below the poverty line earning SCR 3900/- per month or less.
Strange, because 39,
is the number of years that SPUP, SPPF and PL has been in power. I cannot help
but conclude that every year that PL has been in power the level of poverty has
increased by 1% therefore the question is, if PL remains in power for the next
5 years (making a total of 44 years) will those living below the poverty line
be 44%?
One of the ways
through which a PL government has contributed to the creation of poverty is the
issue of “tan servis”. The formula of one day’s pay for each month worked, dates
back to the colonial days, but in 2010 this government found it fit to trash it
down to a mere 0.8333 pay for each month worked, therefore The tax payer loses
0.1677 pay for each month worked.
For example a
person earning a salary of SCR 5000.00 per month, after working 5 years in a
company/Government on a 5 day week he/
she would have earned SCR 13846.00 as “tan servis”, but under the present
system where a worker gets only 0.8333 pay, for each month worked he/she would
only get SCR 11537.87, because instead of the government paying the employee 60 days equal to (5 years “tan servis”
on the pre 2010 formula) the government only pays the worker for 50 days. (Which is, four years and one and a half months salary only,
instead of five years). In essence the longer you serve in the company or
government you loose big time!! This means for every 5 years that an employee
works he /she loses 10 days pay from his “tan servis” payment. If he/she has
served 15 years therefore he/she stands to loose a whole month’s salary as
compensation paid to him/her. This is day light robbery!! That is not all, the
employees I have spoken with all tell me that after five years service they
only get around Seychelles Rupees Six Thousand as gratuity.
And this, is only one of the ways that PL uses to give
the citizens of Seychelles ‘son don li”.
Alexia G. Amesbury
