{"id":1685,"date":"2021-06-11T23:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T19:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venturelawltd-com.stackstaging.com\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2021-06-11T23:17:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T19:17:04","slug":"budget-highlights-2021-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/11\/budget-highlights-2021-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS 2021-2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents<\/p>\nToggle<\/span>

State of Mauritius Economy<\/a><\/li>
Business Facilitation<\/a><\/li>
Financial Services<\/a><\/li>
Tourism<\/a><\/li>
Fintech<\/a><\/li>
Construction<\/a><\/li>
Information Technology<\/a><\/li>
Individual Investors and Residents<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n
<\/span>
State of Mauritius Economy<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
The budget deficit for fiscal year 2020\/2021 is expected to reach 5.6 percent. There have been consecutive contractions of GDP for fiscal years 2019\/20 and 2020\/21 and public sector debt has risen to 95% of GDP.<\/span><\/li>\n
It is expected that the measures announced will accelerate our economic recovery and the economy is expected to grow at 9%. The Budget deficit will be contained at 5 percent of GDP.<\/li>\n
The objective is to bring it down to less than 80 percent of GDP by end June 2025 and to 70 percent by end June 2030.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Business Facilitation<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
Streamlining of various incentives currently issued by the EDB to three schemes namely the Investment Certificate, the Export Development Certificate and the Premium Investor Certificate<\/span><\/li>\n
The Premium Investor Certificate will allow companies investing at least Rs 500 million to benefit from negotiable incentives, upon recommendation of a Technical Committee and approval by the Minister.<\/li>\n
The Investment Certificate will allow companies investing in, amongst others, seafood, pharmaceutical, digital technology\u00a0 and healthcare biotechnology to avail from a number of tax incentives and holidays<\/li>\n
The Export Development Certificate are aimed at companies exporting goods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Financial Services<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
In order to strengthen the implementation of the AML-CFT system the AML\/CFT Core Group will be given legal force under the FIAMLA.<\/span><\/li>\n
A Financial Crime Commission will be established for a better effective management in the fight against financial crime.<\/li>\n
A new BOM Bill and Banking Bill will be introduced to reflect the best international practices.<\/li>\n
The following new bills and legislations will also be implemented to participate to the development of the financial services sectior: (i) Securitisation Bill ; (ii) a new Securities Bill; and (iii) a new legislation for virtual assets.<\/li>\n
An extension of the tax holiday for Family Offices as well as Fund and Asset Managers from 5 to 10 years<\/li>\n
The Stock Exchange of Mauritius will introduce rules for the setting up of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Tourism<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
Mauritius will be open to all vaccinated visitors for resort tourism as from 15.07.21, subject to a 14 day hotel quarantine with a negative PCR test. Mauritius will be open to all vaccinated tourists with a negative PCR test as from 10.01.21, without any restrictions.<\/span><\/li>\n
EDB setting up a special desk aiming to attract at least 50,000 foreign retirees in Mauritius.<\/li>\n
For hotels built on state lands and in financial difficulties and to attract equity financing, the rate of tax on transfer of leasehold rights will be halved. The current tax rate of 20% payable will be reduced to 10% (5% for the buyer and 5% for the seller).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Fintech<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
New legislation for virtual assets will be enacted.<\/span><\/li>\n
The Bank of Mauritius will roll out a Central Bank Digital Currency- the Digital Rupee \u2013 on a pilot basis.<\/li>\n
Bank of Mauritius to introduce a dedicated QR Code at national level to facilitate digital payments<\/li>\n
Bank of Mauritius and the FSC setting up an Open-Lab for banking and payment solutions and a FinTech Innovation Lab to encourage an entrepreneurship culture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Construction<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
The Drive for major country-wide infrastructural projects continues. Several public infrastructural projects will be implemented across the island including the extension of the light railway system to Reduit.<\/span><\/li>\n
Invest Hotel scheme: The sale of units in an approved Invest Hotel Scheme is limited to 60% of the total number of units in the hotel. This limit will be increased to 80% of the total number of units. The scheme will also allow owners to occupy their units for a total period of 180 days\u00a0 in a year.<\/li>\n
A non-citizen who purchases an apartment\u00a0 of no less than USD 375,000 in a building of at least 2 floors above ground floor will be issued with a residence permit, including for his dependents, and exempted from the requirement of a work or occupation permit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Information Technology<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
The METISS cable connecting Mauritius to South Africa is now a reality since March 2021.<\/span><\/li>\n
The Government will introduce mobile and contactless payment systems, starting with the Registrar-General, NLTA and the Companies Division.<\/li>\n
The Government will set up a Digital Industries Academy by the EDB.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Individual Investors and Residents<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
To fully implement the Contribution Sociale Generalisee (pension contributions), a comprehensive legislation will be introduced shortly to cater for payment of contribution and benefits. Self-Employed individuals will be eligible to benefits in case of injury at work if they are registered with the MRA and they contribute to the CSG. <\/span><\/li>\n
The validity period for an Occupation Permit for Professionals will be extended from 3 years to 10 years. Spouses of Occupation Permit holders wishing to invest or work in Mauritius will be exempted from applying for an Occupation Permit or a work permit. The maximum age limit of 24 years for dependents will be waived.<\/li>\n
A new category under the Occupation Permit Regime, the 10-Year Family Occupation Permit for those contributing USD 250,000 to the COVID-19 Projects Development Fund will be introduced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State of Mauritius Economy The budget deficit for fiscal year 2020\/2021 is expected to reach 5.6 percent. There have been consecutive contractions of GDP for fiscal years 2019\/20 and 2020\/21 and public sector debt has risen to 95% of GDP. It is expected that the measures announced will accelerate our economic recovery and the economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications","category-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.venturelawltd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}