The Fiji Democratic party has hit out at the government's 2003 budget ahead of today's parliamentary debate on the proposals.
The party leader, Filipe Bole, says they are shocked and greatly disheartened by the 595 million US dollar budget.
Mr Bole says the budget is far too much and unrealistic and taxpayers are being forced to pay for an amount which Fiji cannot afford.
Mr Bole says many of the budget proposals, which often overlap, have been included just to please the government's voters.
The Fiji Democrats leader says the government must come back to reality and reduce the budget by prioritising its proposed projects.
Mr Bole says people were already suffering from having to pay ten per cent Value Added Tax on all goods and services.
He said raising the tax to 12 point five per cent is immoral because the poor will suffer more.
He says this tax means the poor will grow poorer and the economic gap will grow wider still
