🇲🇺 State revenue hits a record Rs 235 billion as households feel the squeeze

State revenue hits a record Rs 235 billion as households feel the squeeze

State revenue will hit a record Rs 235.5 billion this year, up from Rs 136 billion five years ago, according to a sharp breakdown of national spending, even as the same households feeding it say they cannot keep up.

The pressure is plain at street level. A commuter spends up to Rs 9,400 a month on bus fares and midday meals, more than half the minimum wage before rent even enters the picture. Homeowners carry mortgage rates not seen since 2013, after May's increases, while retirees watch a standard shopping basket cost about 5% more than last year, per Bank of Mauritius figures. Petrol sits at Rs 77.70 a litre.

Critics say the treasury is not empty but leaking. Debt servicing alone is projected near Rs 26 billion this fiscal year, more than the whole education budget and one rupee in every eight collected in tax. Record takings and record complaints in the same year, the gap is the story the next budget has to explain.

ADSU seizes Rs 16.4 million of cannabis off a Dubai flight

Officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU), working with customs, arrested a man of 30 as he landed from Dubai at SSR airport on Monday afternoon. They found ten sealed black packets holding 10.94 kilos of cannabis, worth about Rs 16.41 million. He now faces an importation and trafficking charge.

Also seized: a Malaysian passport, three boarding passes, a luggage tag and some foreign cash, 355 pounds and 250 US dollars among it. They launched a controlled delivery the same day to trace the buyer, then quietly called it off on Tuesday, the police report does not say why.

Three Bangladeshi workers die as glass panes fall at Plaine-des-Papayes

Three Bangladeshi workers died on Wednesday evening at Plaine-des-Papayes when a crate of 41 glass panes they were unloading toppled onto them. Each pane measured six feet by eight.

It happened on Mosque Road as the men emptied a shipping container, and SAMU, the emergency medical service, and the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service soon reached the scene. Police moved the three bodies to Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital for autopsy. Site safety and the employer's duty of care will now face scrutiny.

Mauritius and Seychelles team up to survey the Mascarene seabed

Mauritius and Seychelles have signed the firm CGG to survey 396,000 km² of the Mascarene Plateau seabed, PM Ramgoolam says. The geoscientific and seismic study maps a vast shelf the two states share. What they do with it, from fisheries to minerals, is the part still unwritten.

Planters run short of both water and workers

Irrigation water is scarce. Hands are scarcer. Pesticide rules keep shifting. Those were the grievances growers aired at a planters' meeting on Tuesday. A dry spell and an ageing workforce are squeezing the fields at once, and cheaper imported produce does the rest.

Shorts

Coast guard leak suspected in Dreamer case – Investigators suspect a Coast Guard officer fed patrol details to the Dreamer traffickers.

Two teens robbed of phones at Gros-Cailloux – Robbers jumped two teenagers at Gros-Cailloux and made off with their phones.

Port Louis street shuts for seven weeks – Rue Monseigneur Leen in Port Louis closes from Friday to 21 December for works, so plan detours.

Bhadain says the government has no fixes – Reform Party's Roshi Bhadain says the state offers no answers on village polls, pensions or Kistnen.

Seggae festival takes over Saturday – The Seggae Zwe festival lights up the stage this Saturday.

Upcoming Events

Sat 7 Nov · Mahogany Car Boot Sale
8am to 1pm at Mahogany Promenade

Sat 14 Nov · NASA Space Apps Challenge
2 days · Rajiv Gandhi Science Center

Thu 19 Nov · ThirdThursday Networking
9:30am to 11:30am at Middlesex Uni

Rs 3.42 billion

flowed to the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) as the 2026 tax season closed on 30 October, logged across 324,921 returns. The filing window is shut; the audits are not.

$500 million

in yearly premiums now flows through reinsurer Africa Specialty Risks, which is marking its fifth year on the island. Mauritius keeps selling itself as the region's reinsurance desk.

$7.8 trillion

of visitor spending could flow through tourism this year, the World Travel Market reckons, on a record 23.9 billion nights away from home despite wars and pricey fuel.

South Africa votes with the ANC on the back foot

South Africans went to the polls on Wednesday in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress, the party that ended apartheid rule and has steadily bled support ever since. President Cyril Ramaphosa cast his ballot amid anger over failing services and crumbling infrastructure. A weak municipal result would tighten the screws before next national vote.

Kenya's Phoebe Okowa joins the World Court

Kenya's Phoebe Okowa, a professor of international law, has won election to the International Court of Justice, the UN's top court, with 183 General Assembly votes.

Lisbon's housing protest camp returns to Rossio

Protesters pitched around 100 tents back in Lisbon's Rossio square after a court ruling, reviving pressure on Portugal's government over the cost of housing.

Democrats take Congress as Trump ducks the blame

Did the Iran war just cost President Trump the Congress? He all but admitted it, offering rare praise for the Democrats after sweeping midterm wins while conceding the war may have played a part.

The results hand his rivals both chambers and a brake on the back half of President Trump's term. Whether that shifts the Iran policy or merely slows it is the next question.

Indonesia jails officials for bugging its own president

Indonesia has arrested a former national police chief and two generals over illegal wiretapping of President Prabowo, with troops deploying into Jakarta.

Spain's transport minister quits over a deadly crash

Spain's transport minister, Oscar Puente, has resigned and pulled out of the November ballot after a high-speed train crash south of Madrid killed 69 people.

What does it cost to bury the dead in Ivory Coast?

Valerie Bli Lou has already spent over $4,275 burying her late father the way Ivorian tradition demands, more than fifteen times the average monthly wage. The bill keeps growing.

Custom means a lavish, music-filled farewell: cows, a long coffin journey, hundreds of guests to feed. Families who cannot pay keep the body in a morgue at about $12 a day. The dead can cost more than the living.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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