Fiji cuts its standard VAT rate from 15% to 12.5% from 1 August 2025

What changed in detail

The Value Added Tax (Budget Amendment) Act 2025, Act No. 10 of 2025, was passed by Parliament on 18 July 2025 and assented on 21 July 2025. Under section 1(2) it comes into force on 1 August 2025.

The rate cut:

• section 4(a) replaces “15%” with “12.5%” in section 14(1) of the Value Added Tax Act 1991, which sets the rate on taxable supplies;
• section 5 makes the same change in section 15(1), which sets the rate on imports.

Other changes in the same Act:

• Schedule 1 gains a new paragraph 11 for payment services supplied by payment service providers: cash deposits and withdrawals, payment transactions, payment instruments and electronic money, including mobile-money services. Purely online or telecommunication services and network access are excluded;
• Schedule 2 gains a new paragraph 32: mechanical harvester services supplied by registered co-operatives;
• new section 70D allows a VAT refund on reconstructing residential premises damaged by termites, capped at the tax fraction of FJD 120,000;
• new section 70E allows a VAT refund on residential solar installations, excluding solar heaters and stand-alone solar lighting.

What it means

The 12.5% rate is still in force. The next VAT budget amendment, Act No. 15 of 2026 (in force 1 August 2026), changed import concessions and the time of supply for hotel stays but did not touch the rate in sections 14(1) or 15(1).

For suppliers, this was a straight rate change with no transitional schedule in the Act, so the 1 August 2025 tax point decides which rate applies. Prices, receipts and Electronic Fiscal Device settings had to switch on that date.

The 5% Tourism Services Tax from September 2026 is a separate tax under its own Act and did not change the VAT rate.