[Photo: FILE]
Businesses and property owners could soon face significantly higher penalties for breaching public health laws.
These fines have been proposed to increase from as little as $20 to as much as $5,000 under the Public Health Amendment Bill.
The proposed increase was highlighted during a parliamentary standing committee hearing, where the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation raised concerns about the scale of the new penalties and their impact on smaller operators.
Permanent Secretary Salanieta Daunabuna says while stronger enforcement is important, consideration should be given to the varying sizes and capacities of businesses, particularly within the tourism sector.
Daunabuna told the committee that a distinction may be needed between large tourism operators and smaller businesses when applying penalties.
“Some of the amounts have jumped from, for example, twenty dollars to one thousand dollars or five thousand dollars. If there can just be some demarcation in terms of when such penalties apply, because in the tourism space we have the large operators and the small operators.”
In response, Ministry of Health officials acknowledged the concern, saying the categorisation of penalties based on the type and scale of service provided is an issue that can be considered as deliberations on the bill continue.
