9 Nov 2004

Fiji politician warns of danger to the national pension fund posed by huge government debt

8:07 pm on 9 November 2004

Fiji's National Federation Party has warned that the country's 1-point-8 billion US dollar National Provident Fund is heading for disaster unless the government repays its huge debt to the fund.

The NFP's leader, Dorsami Naidu, was referring to the government borrowing of 950-million US dollars from the Fund which is expected to grow to nearly 1-point-2 billion US dollars next year as the national budget deficit continues to grow.

Mr Naidu says he is afraid that the Funds pension scheme would be scrapped.

He says the country is still paying off the debt for the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji under 157-million US dollars of bad debts in 1996 and the last thing people need is the collapse of the National Provident Fund.