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Mauritius adopts CO2 Emissions Green Tax, Nissan NV200, New Micra K13, Mitsubishi Colt

bhoot — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:20:05 +0000

It’s good to see the award winning NV 200 (the new Nissan Vanette) reaching our shores for about Rs 600,000. Now the Peugeot Bipper/Partner has a contender. Although the Bipper is more affordable and comes in more economical diesel engine, hardcore Japanese fans.

Good to see as well is the new Micra with a 1.2 L 3-cylinder new engine that’s going to be able to compete with peers for fuel economy. Coupled with a 7-year 100,000 km warranty, ABC Motors knows its business. I guess many Mauritians won’t see the a-bit-dull looks and lower quality (according to foreign journalists).

The Mitsubishi Colt is finally here, abeit the older model. I hope they advertise that it has SIX (6) seats as opposed to 5 for all other hatchbacks in its category (Vitz, Fit, Demio, 207, Fiesta).

Finally the introduction of the green tax soon will be a good thing. It’ll be a system similar to France with bonus and mallus applied depending on your car’s CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission. To be honest, I think the bonus is way too little. It should have been 3x more. Even the Prius manages only about Rs 70,000 rebate on tax – which is peanuts for a Rs 1M plus car… But the penalty for polluting engines is quite high… say at least Rs 200,000 for a Porsche. And what about the 50% off every tax for hybrids and electric vehicles? Do they still hold?

The big problem comes also from the fact that pickup trucks are not affected by this penalty. Now that there is a new Minister of Finance, let’s hope even more rationality with an updated taxation plan. The current table (from MotorMag) is as follows:

	Bonus			Malus
CO2 Emission g/km	0 to 90	91 to 157	158	159 to 225	191 to 225	226 to 290	>290
Value in Rs per g	-3000	-1000	0	+2000	+3000	+4000	+5000
Max bonus/malus Rs	85g will give -15,000 -67,000	-67,000	-	+64,000	+64,000 +105,000	+64,000 +105,000 +260,000

I think that the bonus should be as follows to encourage green vehicles:
0 to 90g = -10,000 (there aren’t any cars below 90 g)
91 to 110 = -5,000
110 to 138 = -3,000
139 to 157 = -1,000

End of Second Hand Sales Division for Toyota Mauritius

bhoot — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:45:09 +0000

While local competitors are increasing their second-hand vehicle sales, it’s not surprising that the local dealer of Toyota (ex Beechand) is closing its Toyota Sure, used car division. Why it’s not surprising, it’s because of their bad service, excessive prices, and incorrect models sold…

The number of Toyota Vitz sold in Mauritius is a lot, you just have to check around. So is the latest Corolla NZE 140 aka Axio. A lot of taxi drivers have now gained the knowledge that Axio is the new Japanese Corolla. While the model sold by Toyota Mauritius is the Malaysian built Altis E150 – which only recently got 6-speed and a dual-vvti engine…

That said, it’s not Toyota that is at fault, it’s their Mauritian dealership. They do not sell appropriate models, are not customer-focused, and have bad marketing campaigns! If only, I could take the reins of that company… or open a competing Toyota dealership… I could bring Daihatsu to Mauritius (and I thought about Lexus years ago!)

I still remember asking a salesperson from there about the price for the E140 Axio and the answer was that they have the E120 Corolla (so old…)…

I would still recommend Toyota Corolla Axio, Vitz, Auris, Rush, Mark X and Daihatsu Move, Copen and Sirion (Passo) – both new and second hand. People who can’t buy the new Prius 3 would buy second hand Prius 2.

Action, Not Birth, Determines Caste – Religion, Politics & Management

bhoot — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:14:43 +0000

I was very pleased with the episodes of Mahabharat this week (Mahabharat 6 & 10 Sep MBC1). There were important lessons and teachings in each episodes. Given the recent uproar created by the infamous l’Express article on castes use in politics, I think it’s important that everyone understands that even in the times of Mahabharat (3000 years ago or so), it was accepted that people can determine their caste, by the job they do: their actions.

Karan told his father that he wants to become a warrior, a Kshatriya, changing from his father’s Shudra job of being charioteer. He will succeed in becoming a great warrior later in the series.

Another good lesson comes from Mama Shakuni to Duryodhan. Some people associate ‘Divide and rule‘ philosophy to colonial English, when the British East India Company used the divisions of small kingdoms in India to their advantage into conquering the big India. However, Shakuni gives the same advice over 3o00 years ago to his nephew. He mentions that together the Pandavas are stronger than he is, but one-on-one, Duryodhan can beat them.

Shakuni suggests that apart from the virtues, conspiracy can prove useful in battle. When the enemy is stronger that you are, you must first identify what your strengths are. Then identify the weaknesses of the enemy so that you can strike there. That’s how Duryodhan is able to beat Bheem by using the latters eating habit. Compare with the SW of SWOT analysis in Management…

Now I think that the politicians in Mauritius are really preaching unité national. After all, they are the models themselves, making coalitions, networks. Each party comprises of cross-religion and castes members. However, for the orthodox people who still vote on castes, they use a divide and rule approach, where it is easier to manage small blocks of the voters, compared to a large group. That’s also the approach in conventional management, where big companies (e.g. GML, Rogers..) have created specialised small firms to handle different activities…

Mauritians do work together well, at least, the youngsters do. I do, my friends from other religions do as well. We accept each other’s cultural differences, and learn the good things from each other, as well pointing the bad sides. E.g. women oppression in distorted ideas from Hinduism and Islam. Let’s hope that the current generation is stronger than the few of us who are still cultivate caste-communial differences negatively…

Gold Remains One of the Safest High Yield Investments – Mauritius Dodo Coins

bhoot — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:39:16 +0000

Mauritians have access to investing in gold since over 20 years with the introduction of The Dodo coin in Rs 100, Rs 250, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 face values. It must have been in 1990′s, while a kid reading MCB Rupys magazine that I came to learn about it. The Dodo coins were a symbol of patriotism. A few years later, their prices has grown from Rs 1000 to Rs 8000… It came to my mind that hmm, gold prices have increased… Little did I guess that they’d keep on increasing. The Dodo gold coin prices grew an amazing 25%+ per annum* compound over the last five years! Or 14.5% p.a. for the last 10 years.That might not exactly sound high yield to you, if you are a pro investor getting over 50% p.a. but it’s consistent. I read earlier that Gold prices rise about 20% p.a. while real estate gets 15% p.a. in USA (pre-crisis).

*Get the latest and past prices of The Dodo gold coin from the Bank of Mauritius website: http://bom.intnet.mu

Rs 100 face value – 3.41g of gold - Rs 5155 to Rs 1000 face value (34.05g) at Rs 49,120.

BTW, the BOM site is really BOM!

The seriousness of pen-drive viruses and their ignorance: Simple steps to protect yourself

bhoot — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:20:40 +0000

I have seen to many people ignorant of the fact that their pen-drives (usb key, usb disk) have been contaminated by viruses that have been copied by them unknowingly! How? And why didn’t their antivirus detect them? Some do not even know until their computers start becoming slow and more… Let me explain easy ways to detect and protect yourself…

The first thing you will notice if you have such usb-spreading-viruses (they come in different flavours e.g. ckvo, amvo…) is that when you double-click on a drive in My Computer (yes, Linux and MacOS users are safe.. so far). If the drive opens in a new window, it means you have the virus! So rule number 1: Always use the folder tree view to select a drive in My Computer. Why, because when you double click on a drive, it executes a windows file called autorun.inf on that drive. That file can execute any file specified in that drive. It’s like you’re literally opening the door to anyone knocking! Or you might want to turn off Autorun on your computer.

Next thing is to prevent that virus from spreading if ever the above happened by accident. To do this, rule number 2, you need a proper Firewall. I use Comodo Personal Firewall and it’s really efficient – doesn’t slow down your computer, and tells you every time suspicious programs attempt to write to disk or to use the internet (you’d even catch key-loggers).

Your antivirus might not necessarily be able to detect these issues, e.g. I have used Norton/Symantec and McAfee Viruscan. They gave me such a headache, especially by using 200MB+ memory, deleting my whole mailbox and preventing me from running Thinstall applications… Rule number 3 have a good anvirus: the bests I have found are Avast Home and AVG Free. Free and efficient and fast.

Common sources for this virus in Mauritius are the many schools, some universities and some offices where adequate measures have not been taken. Also the internet, when you browse underground sites especially using Internet Explorer. So rule number 4, do not use Internet Explorer 6.

Now what if you already have these viruses, how to remove them? That’s the big hurdle. There are steps that you can find many sites, if you search ’removing ckvo.’ I’ll write another post for that soon…

Crise Euro Already Starts Negative Speculation

bhoot — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:40:44 +0000

The effects of the last 2008 recession was felt a bit late in the Mauritian stock exchange: the lowest point came about Feb-March 2009. Now we hear of the recent Euro Crisis and the market went down a bit last week… already?

A bit too quick. Naiades shares that has risen from Rs 26 to 28 went back to 25.5 (it’s back to 26.x now); Air Mauritius went down from 14 to 13 and is still going down. So are a few other companies. Will this trend persist? I think it will be temporary. It’s not the big financial crisis that coming again. It’s too early, if you base upon Robert Allen’s theory of cyclic markets (I know he might not be an authority, but his words make sense)…

I’ll persist with almost the same list of companies I recommended last time: SBM, NRL (it has good cashflow and is underpriced: other resorts groups are about 2x their NAV), AIRM (when it has gone down a lot – anyway, it’s underpriced), GIDC, Omnicane (these two are long term). The Shell, GCL and Rogers remain solid companies but let’s wait for a fall. If you bought MCFI and BAIN (as in the previous list) it’s time to sell.

Now is the time to invest in the Mauritian Stock market – March April May 2010 –

bhoot — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Most companies have recovered from the crash that the local market following recession. The SEMDEX reached its minimum last year in March 2009, some companies falling as low as their nominal values! But since there, the market has roared. If I had put my money then, I’d be happy with a 25-100% profit… Demand kept rising until recently…

There’s now a fall… I read somewhere that Mauritians spend less in February-March. That’s post new year effect… I wondered if it applies to investors as well. The current decrease in the prices of some companies seem to suggest that it is the right time to get in again… MCB, Naiade, ENL Commercial… are just few of the companies that I spot. You’ll say Naiade is making losses, but I’d say it won’t be long. The other groups in the sector are already priced past their NAV…

Companies to watch in my opinion:

MOR – Mauritius Oil Refineries
MCB
BAIN
SBM
MCFI
NRL – Naiade Resorts
GIDC – ENL Commercial
AIRM – Air Mauritius

New MyT and ADSL Tariff – Unlimited internet is finally accessible to all?

bhoot — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:46:34 +0000

I have to say that at first, I was quite disappointed when the MBC Journal said that they 128K ADSL is now being offered at 256K but with a 3GB cap (and extra transfer at Rs0.57/MB) at only Rs 499… But then I looked at Orange.mu news section. The old 128K unlimited is also available as ADSL 512 with a Fair Usage Policy at Rs 863 (inc vat). That’s good… but MBC didn’t say about MyT? That got me worried… but MyT has also went down… from MyT 256 at Rs 750+VAT to MyT 512 at Rs 869+VAT (LOL, no, it didn’t go up!).

I decided to have a few speed test to verify if Orange people would really be working on a Sunday to do the switching to faster speed…It’s Sunday 1 March… 15h00 let’s go on http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ one of the reliable speed tests out there, and make a few tests. I made 4-5 tests which gave me over 500kbps almost every time. And 370kbps 1 time. That’s pretty good… But I still have to test on Rapidshare and see what it gives.

Bhoot@lallmatie.com Speed test results - USA site

The first offer – ADSL 512k limited to 3GB at only Rs 499 (including VAT) is, I must agree, I very good offer for all those students and people who can’t afford more for internet. But beware that they will not be able to download often with that kind of limit. My brother for example, uses 20-30GB per month! (that would cost him over Rs 5000/month)… On the other hand, if you only do research, email (I use only 100-200MB/month in email) and stay 24/24 on MSN/Yahoo/Skype… then this offer is for you! There is always a catch… you can’t get that speed and ADSL everywhere.. can you? It’s just the nature of the analogue phone line… so it’s not 100% accessible… Remains to compare with Emtel’s mobile broadband offer at only Rs 459 per month for up to 1.8Mbps (but capped at 1GB and Rs 2.22/extra MB and initial cost of 5k)… Which give the peak speed only in regions with 3.5G coverage…

Checking out the dial up packages on Orange.mu I came across something that I knew for a long time with competing ISPs… Orange’s “web accelerator” works on dial up (312 1212). Finally, they decided to give that out… Can you imagine that I have been using Nomad Booster (NetClient) 5 years ago when Nomad still offered it’s dial up service! At that time, it was already offering the surfing speed of an ADSL 128 on a normal 56k V92 dial up… Almost nobody knew about it… And MT closed their eyes to that technology, refusing to copy until now… But if you plan to use more than the 12 hours package (comes to Rs 350/month), I really do recommend ADSL 256 3GB…

March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!

bhoot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:19:54 +0000

I feel like taking it all out whenever I see someone still buying a N17 Nissan Sunny VIP. It’s ugly (to me), DISCONTINUED in Japan and SMALL INTERIOR for it’s exterior size. It is an improvement over the past Sunny in terms of space use, and it remains an economical engine to run and service (lower second price about Rs 100k less). But can’t you see that the Nissan March is BIGGER THAN the Sunny interior?

Nissan March AK12

The Nissan March’s engine is 1.2L 90 horsepower on about 900 kg (about 100 hp/ton) – compare that to the Sunny’s old 1.3L 87hp on 1100 kg (that’s about 80hp/ton), for about Rs 50,000 more (and it the March is the best selling Nissan in Mauritius). Even the Tiida is here now. Tiida is the official successor of Sunny – which I doubt many Sunny-addicts realise.

Tiida’s interior is its best feature of all – it’s as big (or bigger) as the old Bluebird Sylphy, bigger than a VW Golf or Civic hatchback. The gearbox is a gem. CVT means that there is unlimited gears! It’s not the old uneconimical step-auto 4-speed that we used to get 10 years ago. CVT Automatic’s give better mileage because you can reach your reasonable speed (say 50-90) without pressing hard on the pedal (while keeping a low RPM): just like a 6-speed uses less fuel than a 4-speed manual. All that while driving smoothly without any gear-change shocks and drops in torque/power. More on CVT here.

Just Do It!

bhoot — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:58:51 +0000

Times and again, someone has to know what’s happening in some places around Lallmatie… Or that I should give my opinion on the problems in Mauritius. I’m not yet writing articles for a newspaper, but a blog is a very good start!

So often, I get ideas of what I can write, or what should be said (like many people had predicted today’s traffic problems with the 3 pm ending time for colleges – it’s another thing that it might be solved today… we said it before… much before…). So from now on, I’ll write on… Show the world, you, and expect comments, critics, etc… Spam? Except Spam…

Speaking of the traffic problem, if ‘they’ really want to keep the 3 pm, why not increase the working time for government agencies to 4.30 pm? Anyway, they’re already getting more pay since this year’s PRB – and we’re still working harder, and for longer hours in the private sector, and still running the economy…