Music mania | Government considers tax incentives for music events

Government will be looking at providing incentives for music events, similar to tax incentives provided to filmmakers.

This, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad.

The Fiji Times had asked – given the measurable success of the Homecoming Music Festival – whether the State would look at providing incentives to meet the exorbitant costs associated with sound and stage production for such events, to make Fiji an attractive destination.

“Yes, we will,” he said.

“That’s a good question and a good suggestion and a good proposal for us to look at the existing incentives, how they feed into, say, events like musical events, and whether there is a need to consider additional incentive, and we would be happy to look at that,” he said.

“Fiji is a great hub in the Pacific for international events, and people like George Fiji Veikoso, who was an icon, who was loved by a large number of people in this country and beyond, the homecoming event was a great, great event, a successful event beyond remembering him.

“The economic benefits that the event generated is definitely a good economic windfall for many sectors.”

The Fiji Times also asked if Government had done an analysis on the revenue generated by the three-day concert.

“No, we don’t have an estimate, but what I can tell you is, any international event or any activity, whether it’s a music festival, whether it’s sports tournament, whether it’s film festival, any kind of event that attracts international visitors, domestic visitors, it always generates economic activity and there is a huge multiplier effect.

“This means that people, when they come to the country, obviously they fly in, they book hotels, they use taxis, rentals, they stay in Air BnB, they eat out.”

“So, there are all kinds of spending that happens in an economy or in an area and the benefits of the spending spreads in economics, what we call multiplier effect.”

“So yes, there is always a possibility of looking at how we can encourage, how we can motivate, and this can come through not only tax incentives, but also promotion, providing and investing in appropriate infrastructure, which becomes attractive for those who want to hold events in Fiji.”