Business Negative Forces

Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa, Suva

In these difficult times, we must thank the current Government for coming up with incentives to help Fijians find work or start a small business to stay afloat and be alive.

For a retired person like me doing a Visa Business to help Fijians stuck abroad and those in Fiji wishing to apply for a visa to visit overseas destinations; I am faced with two negative forces that needs to be flushed out and dealt with.

One is the $2000 limit on our visa debit cards for overseas payments and any breach of this condition will end up in your visa debit card being “frozen” by the Reserve Bank of Fiji. In my business, Fijians stuck in Australia send me their fees via Western Union, MoneyGram, MPaisa or direct bank deposit and I use my visa debit card to apply for their online visas to the Australian Immigration.

On top of the exchange rate, my bank charges a certain percentage for its service.

Money is coming in to the country but once my payment exceeds $2000, my visa debit card gets frozen which is a crippling blow to the business.

The second negative force is currently being experienced which is why I am writing this letter. Many clients in Australia send money by Western Union (WU) as fees payable for the work done in whatever visa matters they face in Australia.

But what happens when Western Union sends money from different people all over Australia to the same person in Fiji?

The money is blocked and I have been advised by WU to do all sorts of things to get rid of this problem or to write to its head office overseas!

My question is, “Can anything be done to get rid of these two negative forces?”