President Wavel Ramkalawan, chaired a scheduled meeting of the Cabinet yesterday, Wednesday 26th July in which a number of policy memoranda were approved.

As part of the continuous effort to modernize and improve services in the postal sector, the Cabinet approved through Regulation:

1. The mandatory clearance and door-to-door delivery of courier for individuals.
2. The mandatory clearance and door-to-door delivery of courier for businesses upon request.
3. Businesses may clear their own courier through their internal clearing mechanism.
4. The Post Office to clear and door-to-door delivery of any postal articles that arrive through their EMS- Express Mail Service.

In order to further facilitate and exchange information on processes to ensure continuous improvement in the sector, a Memorandum of Understanding between Customs and the courier operators will be entered into.

Cabinet approved policy changes for the Credit Information System (CIS) and the Credit Reporting Bill.  The Credit Information System supports lenders such as Commercial Banks, Credit Union, Development Bank and Housing Finance Company to obtain reliable information about the credit worthiness of consumers. Given the proposal to use additional data for credit reporting, this will create added benefits to consumers that do not have credit history with lenders as they will be able to utilise the alternative data to establish their credit worthiness through a more accurate risk profile.

In December 2020, Cabinet approved proposals to broaden the scope of the CIS to permit other institutions in the country to provide value-added data to creditors when providing credit to their customers. Following stakeholder consultations on the draft Credit Reporting Bill, Cabinet has today approved new amendments to the Bill which will limit the scope of the CIS to consumer and business credits only instead of entities that use credit facilities primarily for fiscal, monetary policy and resolution purposes from the Central Bank or inter-bank facilities.  The Judiciary will only report on decisions taken by the court on bankruptcy cases. The Judiciary and the Seychelles Revenue Commission will not have to seek consent from the persons that have been declared bankrupt and/or persons that have defaulted in paying their taxes before publishing their information on the CIS.   

Cabinet approved the legislative amendments to proceed with the implementation of the next phase of the Tax Management System (TMS).  The TMS which was launched in December 2021, is aimed at addressing operational challenges and revenue leakages in the tax system.  In line with that, Cabinet approved a number of amendments to the Revenue Administration Act (RAA) to extend the deadline for electronic filing and payments of returns to the 23rd day of the month whilst physical filing and payment is maintained for the 21st day of the month.  A new provision will also be added under the RAA which will require large taxpayers and any taxpayer with tax payable of SR 50,000.00 or more to effect payment online; and large taxpayer to file their returns online. A new sub-section will be added under section 9 of the RAA, which will grant the Commissioner General power to raise a default assessment against a taxpayer in the absence of return requirements under a respective revenue law.  In addition, further amendments will be made to the Business Tax Act and the Tourism Marketing Tax Act to reflect the revised self-assessment returns forms being introduced.

The Ministry of Health presented the Annual Health Sector Performance Report for 2022 to Cabinet. The report is a detailed account of the first year of implementation of the National Health-Sector Strategic Plan (NHSP) 2022-2026. Considerable resources have been invested in health and the Ministry has achieved a large number of outputs, with health service utilisation reaching pre-pandemic levels in many areas. The report highlighted the areas of success for the health sector and the areas where more nationwide effort is needed to address current challenges such as risk factors to health which lead to the  main disease burden and the ever-rising  cost of health care for the country.

Seychelles National Health-Sector Strategic Plan articulates four goals for the sector: namely to increase life expectancy and healthy life expectancy; achieve and sustain all dimensions of Universal Health Coverage (UHC); prevent, prepare for, detect and respond to health emergencies; and promote healthy populations. 

Cabinet thanked the Ministry and all its staff for their devotion and commitment to providing quality service to the Nation.  Cabinet also appealed to the public to take care of their health and to make good use of the services available.  The Ministry of Health will present the report to the media this week.