The Faatuatua i Le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Party launched its Manifesto in Savaii this morning, with promises of tax cuts for businesses and wage earners, and hundreds of millions invested to boost Samoa Airways, agricultural exports and import substitution initiatives.

FAST says it will cut Corporate Tax from 27% to 23%.

Higher income earners who currently pay almost a third of their wages in taxes at 27% will also see a PAYE tax rate drop to 23%.

For lower income earners, FAST party says they will increase the threshold for PAYE tax from $15,000 to $20,000. That means wage earners won’t have to pay tax until they’re earning $20,000 tala per annum ($386 per week or over $9.60 per hour).

In other areas of economic growth FAST says it will invest heavily to boost exports with $50 million flagged to support commercial farmers for exports (mo faatoaga faipisinisi e siitia ai oloa faatau atu i fafo).

Another $50 million will go towards manufacturing for import substitution (mo oloa gaosi e faaitiitia ai oloa mai fafo). Speaking to this point during the announcement, FAST party leader Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt said Samoa currently imports between 60-70 forty-foot containers of imported chicken each month.

“We are going to set up our own poultry farm to lessen our dependence on imported goods,” said Laaulialemalietoa.

FAST says it will re-establish Samoa Airways with a whopping $300 million tala to go towards purchasing airplanes and to establish access to international flights.

For domestic travel, FAST will restart flights between Fagalii, Faleolo and Savaii presumably for landings in Maota and Asau.

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Still in the area of transport FAST will put $50 million towards improving ferry services between Upolu and Savaii, as well as Upolu and American Samoa.

This includes options for travel between islands during times of emergencies (faamautu auala o femalagaiga i le va o motu o Samoa i taimi o faalavelave faafuasei).

Local tourism will get a boost with $100 million to go towards improving accommodation – faaleleia o faletalimalo tau atia’e ma latou anofale.

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In the area of Access to Finance, FAST have flagged $50 million tala to boost the lending capacity of the Development of Samoa. The FAST party Chair says DBS is where farmers and micro enterprises should be going for access to unsecured loans, “that you can pay back when you harvest”.

Both EPC and the Samoa Water Authority have been tagged to receive $50 million tala each. Laaulialemalietoa says this investment is to ensure electricity and water systems are kept at adequate standards of maintenance, and avoid incidents such as the recent power crisis.

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Another 50 million has been tagged for Solar and other forms of renewable energy while $30 million will go towards improvements to sports facilties.

FAST will increase the minimum wage to $6 tala per hour.

65-year-old Pensioners will get $300 per month and 70 year old pensioners can expect $500 per month. FAST also says the monthly pension will be paid in fortnightly installments.

For the million tala district development project FAST says this will increase to $2 million tala for each district, for each financial year. That is a total of $110 million tala per year from the Government Budget.

The Ministry of Women Community and Social Development will get a name change to the Ministry of Family Affairs and Social Development.

NGOs will get a boost with SVSG tagged for $1 million, up from their current funding of $500,000.

$1 million tala for ADRA and a million to be distributed between NGOs working in health care services such as Samoa Family Health, Samoa Cancer Society and METI.

Another million is tagged for NGO institutions such as Mapuifagalele, Mapuipulotu in Savaii, NOLA, Goshen Trust etc. The only NGOs not specifically mentioned are the schools for children with disabilities currently being run Privately by NGOs such as SENESE, Fia Malamalama and Lotu Taumafai.

FAST are also promising to review the conditions for SNPF accessing their compulsory retirement funds. Increasing the percentage of what members can loan to 75% and consolidating loans to decrease interest rates.

For ACC, the FAST Manifesto says contributors to ACC will get back 30% of their accident compensation contributions.

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