The Sugar Loan That Kinda Stinks...

The newly installed Fiji Sugar Cane Growers Council wasted no time making their presence felt.

In a blitzkrieg, the new chairman Jain Kumar took out a $6.4 million loan for the farmers... remember that...for the farmers. The loan, was to be paid back in 2 months, at an interest rate of 6%. I'm assuming that the interest rate is a per-annum one.

Now the Fiji Cane Growers Association is yelling about the fact that the decision to take out the loan was made arbitrarily by the Council Chairman. Of course, with one of his lackeys under fire, "Uncle Mahen" had to come to the rescue. See Fiji TV's 6pm news on Tuesday 03/04/07 clip titled "Farmers loan" to hear the serpent hissing.

Now in all the hoopla, I started thinking about one thing that struck me as odd. If an interest rate of 6% is applied to a loan of $6.4 million, wouldn't the interest over 2 months come to around $65,000 ? That is my own calculation, for those of you who are more financially learned than yours truly, please calculate the actual amount and enlighten us in the comments section after this post or by emailing me.

If my calculations are correct, then as the media quotes the SCGC Chairman as saying that the interest will amount to approximately $96,000, my question is:

WHERE WILL THE BALANCE OF THE INTEREST PAYMENT GO?

There is a difference of around $35,000 in question. For those of you readers overseas, in Fiji, that is the yearly salary of most middle management positions. It's a sizable amount of money, and I hope sincerely that I am wrong in my calculations.

Because if I'm correct, the corruption is still spreading, and the carrier is the same group claiming to be the cure.

God, Please help Fiji.