Fiji Water announced today that it will close its operations in Fiji in response to a water extraction tax hike proposed by the Fijian government, to take effect in 2011. The abrupt shutdown comes just three days after the government announced the 2011 budget, which proposes increasing Fiji Water's "extraction tax" to 15 cents a liter up from one-third of a cent. A week ago, Fiji Water Director of External Affairs David Roth was deported from Fiji. (The country's then acting Prime Minister and simultaneously Minister of Defense, National Security and Immigration, Ratu Ganilau, resigned in protest of Roth's deportation.) Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said that Roth had been interfering in the domestic affairs and governance of Fiji, though he would not explain the nature of that interference.
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