● Why is targeting causing many problems within the government ?

The minister of Finance, Rama Sithanen, has always made it clear that he was in favour of cancelling universal subsidies to target those who really need help to face the rising prices. But he has been confronted with members of his own party who do not share the same views on the issue.

● Why don?t they believe in the targeting process?

There are several causes to that. Some people believe that the main problem about the targeting system is that it will negatively affect middle-class citizens. Even the Prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who while saying he?s generally in favour of targeting, confessed that the main difficulty in implementing such a measure is to find a threshold to determine the amount from which people will no longer be subsidised. MP Nita Deerpalsing however spoke of potential racial disturbance as a consequence of the targeting process. Politically, however, it is a hard choice to make.

● Will targeting be applied during this mandate?

The PM has actually not been very clear about whether he wanted to implement it or not. He has remained very evasive stating that he understood both stands. This is creating some tension within the Labour party and it might be hard to adopt such a measure in such a tense atmosphere.