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While Mauritius is ranked as the fastest growing financial centre in Africa and the second-fastest-growing offshore financial centre (OFC) in the word by the New World Health in 2019, the country is facing severe allegations that it is progressing at the expense of other developing countries. In this respect, this paper aims to assess the contribution of the Mauritius OFC, the robustness of tax avoidance and evasion laws, the endeavours undertaken by the Mauritius Government to promote Mauritius OFC and the alleged classification of Mauritius as a tax haven.

To achieve the above research objectives, this paper will adopt the black letter approach. That is, the relevant legislation and case laws will be scrutinised. Also, books, journal articles, newspaper articles, reports from international bodies amongst others will be used. The research methodology also comprising a critical analysis which implies that existing studies conducted on the subject matter of this research will be assessed and the extent to which the researcher agrees with the existing work will be weighed.

Based on the critical analysis, this paper recommends that the Mauritius Income Tax Act be amended to provide for punitive and corrective actions for those engaged in impermissible tax avoidance. Additionally, for transparency and clarity, it is suggested that the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) clarifies in a practice note the factors that it considers when determining the tax liability that should have been payable or when detecting tax avoidance cases. Similarly, to discourage tax evasion, the fines and penalties for tax-evading offences should be more strict and a regulatory framework for tax practitioners need to be set up.

To the author’s knowledge, this paper is amongst the first academic research that emphasises the position of Mauritius as an OFC and critically analysed the related laws relating to the financial world.

Value added tax (VAT) is an indirect tax that is payable upon the consumption of goods and services. Recently, the Government of Mauritius has introduced a new set of rules to extend the VAT system to non-resident providers of electronic services to consumers based in Mauritius. The purpose of this research paper is therefore to assess the adequacy and efficiency of the recent VAT amendments in terms of compliance requirements and collection measures and to identify loopholes in the present legal provisions.

The methodologies for the research are in essence comprised of the black letter approach which will analyse the legal provisions relating to VAT in Mauritius. A comparative analysis will also be conducted to find out the corresponding legal provisions relating to VAT on digital services in South Africa.

This research paper has highlighted some recommendations inspired by the laws of South Africa and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Based Erosion Profiting Shifting action plan which may be of use to Mauritius stakeholders when devising regulations on the imposition of VAT on foreign suppliers of digital services under Section 14B of the VAT Act.

To the author's best knowledge, this research paper is the first study conducted in the field of indirect taxation of foreign suppliers of digital services to residents of Mauritius.

This paper furthers the analysis of patterns regulating capitalist accumulation based on a historical anthropology of economic activities revolving around and within the Mauritian Export Processing Zone (EPZ).

This paper uses fieldwork in Mauritius to interrogate and critique two important concepts in contemporary social theory – “embeddedness” and “the informal economy.” These are viewed in the wider frame of social anthropology’s engagement with (neoliberal) capitalism.

A process-oriented revision of Polanyi’s work on embeddedness and the “double movement” is proposed to help us situate EPZs within ongoing power struggles found throughout the history of capitalism. This helps us to challenge the notion of economic informality as supplied by Hart and others.

Scholars and policymakers have tended to see economic informality as a force from below, able to disrupt the legal-rational nature of capitalism as practiced from on high. Similarly, there is a view that a precapitalist embeddedness, a “human economy,” has many good things to offer. However, this paper shows that the practices of the state and multinational capitalism, in EPZs and elsewhere, exactly match the practices that are envisioned as the cure to the pitfalls of capitalism.

Setting aside the formal-informal distinction in favor of a process-oriented analysis of embeddedness allows us better to understand the shifting struggles among the state, capital, and labor.

A taxpayer who gets caught under Part VII of the Mauritius Income Tax Act is subjected to a corrective measure only in the form of payment of the amount of tax that would have been due in the absence of the avoidance arrangement, but the consequences set out in the same section do not result in any disincentive to the taxpayer that would ensure the prevention of the occurrence of such type of anti-avoidance practices in the future. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the anti-avoidance provisions in the Mauritius legislation as a weapon against impermissible tax avoidance, and the study also intends to critically analyse the remedies available against taxpayers who enter into impermissible tax avoidance transactions.

The methodology adopted for this qualitative study consists of a critical analysis and comparative legal review of the relevant legislation, case laws and literature. The anti-avoidance provisions of the Mauritius legislation will be compared with similar provisions of legislations of countries that have rigid preventive rules for anti-avoidance practices, and the selected countries are the UK and Australia because each country has been successful in diminishing the tax avoidances practices further to the imposition of penalties for impermissible tax avoidance. The black letter approach will also be used through which existing legal provisions, judicial doctrines, scholar articles and budget speeches governing anti-avoidance provisions for each country identified will be analysed.

Further to an analysis of the substantial differences between Mauritius anti-avoidance legal provisions and those of the UK and Australia, it is found that the backing of corrective actions by penalties act as a disincentive to prohibit impermissible anti-avoidance practices. The study concludes that, where there is abuse of law, the law needs to provide for penalties that must be suffered by the abuser, and hence, the study calls for an amendment in the Mauritius Income Tax Act to strengthen anti-avoidance provisions, by adopting similar provisions of the laws of Australia and the UK.

At present, there is no Mauritius literature on the researched topic, and this study will be one of the first academic writings on the subject of penalties for impermissible tax avoidance in Mauritius. The study is a new and unique topic in Mauritius, and for that reason, the study will largely rely on foreign sources that deal with penalties for impermissible tax avoidance, and this will include the Australian Taxation Administrative Act 1953, Australian case laws and the UK Finance Act 2016. This study is being carried out with the view to provide insightful recommendations to the stakeholders concerned in Mauritius to enhance the revenue collection avenues and methodologies for the Mauritius revenue authorities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of women in the small island economy by focussing on the education sector and labour market access. First, we analyse the educational path of women in Mauritius and second we examine the labour market opportunities available to them. We link the two sectors by adopting a gender perspective. Third, we investigate whether the same opportunities are made available to both men and women and whether or not there exist a gender gap in economic participation in the country.

The author used data from the World Bank Development Indicators (2012) for a comparative analysis of the gender situation in Mauritius relative to other African countries. Gender statistics were also made available from the statistical office: statistics, Mauritius. The Global Gender Gap Report (2012) and the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer 2012 were used as secondary data.

The analysis reveals that though girls’ outperform boys at all education levels, starting from primary, secondary and tertiary level, their access to job opportunities are reduced. Female unemployment rate is higher than that of male unemployment and even for those women who manage to enter the labour market, they remain in the low-occupation jobs. This puzzling relationship between good educational performance and female unemployment or low-occupation may first be explained by the wrong choice of subjects at secondary and tertiary levels. Mauritian women are more likely to obtain a degree in education and humanities which are the traditional areas rather than moving to the non-traditional spheres of science and engineering. Hence, not only is it difficult for them to penetrate the labour market which is already saturated in these traditional disciplines but jobs in these fields may not be in the high wage range. Consequently, these subject choices have repercussions for the occupations they choose and the wages they earn. Significant and persistent gaps remain in the fields of study that women and men choose as part of their formal education. These gaps translate henceforth into gender differences in employment and ultimately into differences in productivity and earnings.

No study has focused on the puzzling link between good education performance of girls and their inability to access the labour market in Mauritius.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which Mauritius has structured its adaptation to and mitigation of the climate change and its effects on the tourism industry based on the UNEP framework on tourism and climate change.

The UNEP framework is used as a guideline based on which an assessment of the various policies, laws or regulations existent in Mauritius is carried out.

The paper highlights the significant lacunas that exist in Mauritius with regard to this subject matter with measures taken in good faith but not structured and oriented enough to meet long-term goals.

This paper adds to the meagre literature that exists in Mauritius on the legal or normative framework that exists in Mauritius concerning climate change and the tourism industry.

Two-way trade flows between Africa and China have increased rapidly between 2001 and 2010. Mauritius being a resource-scarce economy has been no stranger to the “China phenomenon”. China is the third largest supplier to the Mauritian market but will soon be competing for first place. Exports to China, on the other hand, have remained marginal. The paper aims to examine the potential impacts of China's spectacular rise on the Mauritian economy through the trade channel.

The paper draws extensively on secondary data to explain the low export penetration of Mauritian goods on Chinese markets and to examine the impact of Chinese dominance of the global apparel market on Mauritius' clothing exports to third markets. The paper first considers several potential explanations for Mauritius' low levels of exports to China, which are: Mauritius' exports are not competitive enough to penetrate the Chinese market; China does not need to import from Mauritius since it produces all that Mauritius exports; and the Chinese market is relatively closed to Mauritian exports due to high tariffs and other non-tariff barriers. The paper investigates each of the above hypotheses using secondary data from UN COMTRADE. The paper computes a set of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices for Mauritius and China and shows how they have evolved over time. Given the inherent shortcoming of the RCA measure, the paper provides a complementary assessment based on an analysis of cost competitiveness factors. The Export Similarity Index and the Trade Complementarity Index are also computed to test the above hypotheses. Second, using disaggregated data on clothing exports from UN COMTRADE, the paper analyses the product categories where Chinese competition has been most acute.

In conclusion, the whole body of evidence presented in this study points to bleak prospects for Mauritian exporters to enter the Chinese market in a significant manner. Worse, because most of the causes of this low export penetration are due to systemic factors – such as a lack of trade complementarity, poor export competitiveness, export market bias and an irrational fear of doing business in China – the current situation is unlikely to improve in the future in the absence of bold policy measures.

This is the first study looking at the trade relationship between Mauritius and China.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of green marketing strategies on consumer purchasing patterns in Mauritius. The present research also explores the possibility of introducing greener patterns of consumption into contemporary lifestyles in the current context where green products are increasingly available.

This paper reviews the theory of green marketing to identify how customers are persuaded to purchase greener products. It also reports the empirical results of a consumer survey on green marketing strategies by the questionnaire method. The survey questionnaires were administered to 150 respondents visiting various hypermarkets and supermarkets. The questionnaires were processed and analysed with the statistical programme SPSS, using descriptive, correlation and factor analysis.

The findings provide some interesting clues regarding customers’ perceptions on environmental concerns and green products. Further findings suggest that most consumers have expressed a great interest in the protection of the environment and they are strongly concerned about the environment and its degradation. Hence, business executives should host workshops and seminars so as to educate customers on environmental protection and environmental‐friendly products. Results also indicated an overall positive correlation between effective green marketing strategies and customers’ purchasing patterns for green products. Therefore, there is a powerful urge for companies to promote green branding, eco‐labelling and green packaging strategies in order to encourage a greener pattern of consumption among consumers in Mauritius.

The paper suggests a stepping approach to consumer purchasing patterns for greener products could be exploited more within consumer groups that have strong environmental concerns and beliefs in Mauritius. The results also offer precious knowledge on the effectiveness of green marketing strategies which can assist both private and public enterprises in developing and designing appealing green products that will be favoured by customers.

Although green marketing has been an important research topic for several decades, hardly any research has been focused on the impact of green marketing strategies on consumer purchasing patterns in the context of developing countries. This paper has analysed the strength of environmental concerns and beliefs and has provided some insights on green marketing strategies and the various managerial implications have been fully addressed in order to favour the consumption of greener products in Mauritius.

Given the strategic importance of service quality in hotels of Mauritius, this paper investigates the perceptions of international tourists in hotels of Mauritius by employing a modified SERVQUAL approach Using a principal component factor analysis with a Varimax rotation technique, this study identifies nine hotel factors out of 39 hotel attributes and determines the levels of satisfaction among international tourists and their overall evaluation of service quality prevailing in the hotels. The results from the regression analysis suggest that the overall level of service quality is primarily derived from the “Reliability” factor. This study is strategically and managerially important to the hotel industry in Mauritius. From the results of the study, hotel managers can focus their efforts to provide quality service and facilities that international tourists perceive as being important in determining their overall service quality of the hotels.

One of the most common forms of international tax avoidance is transfer pricing by multinational enterprises. The research will investigate on the factors that contribute to transfer pricing abuses. At present, there is no substantial and extensive transfer pricing rule in Mauritius. This paper aims to analyse the legal approaches to tackle transfer pricing issues that are undertaken by some countries whose taxation regime is similar to Mauritius. The selected countries are South Africa and UK. The objective behind the comparative study is to come up with the appropriate preventive and corrective measures for Mauritius.

The methodology adopted for this research consists of a critical analysis and comparative legal review of the relevant legislation, case law and literature. A minor quantitative analysis of the transfer pricing problem in Mauritius will be conducted, in terms of which interviews will be conducted with officials from different institutions in Mauritius.

The study will conclude that the absence of explicit formal rules on transfer pricing allows businesses to use the country to manipulate transfer prices to avoid paying taxes. Therefore, an amendment to Mauritius laws and regulatory framework is required to dissuade multinationals to engage in transfer pricing abuses. The study will conclude that the scope and application of the arm’s length principle needs to be formally set out in legislation and also, the use of Advance Pricing Agreements will also be recommended.

The research is among the first studies that compare Mauritius legal provisions on transfer pricing with that of South Africa and UK. The research is unique as it intends to provide fruitful recommendation to stakeholders in Mauritius to enhance the existing legal framework on the subject.