| Opposition parties yesterday charged that the $161.4 billion budget that the government announced was designed as a package of goodies to dangle before the electorate ahead of general elections this year and boost the chances of the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic.“This is a big three hour speech not geared for serious economic planning but geared for the election campaign,” Opposition Leader Robert Corbin said.Corbin argued that Guyana does not have the absorptive capacity for it to spend “all that money, unless it is going to be used as part of the political slush fund to dole out money for the purposes of persuading people to vote.”Corbin also charged that the budget could not be trusted as an accurate picture of projected government spending, since last year, a budget was presented,Jerseys Wholesale, but the government went back to the National Assembly to approve another $6 billion.“It is clearly a political speech geared to parade to the electorate,” Corbin stated.As part of the budget, Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh announced that income earners will now start paying income tax on anything they earn over $40,000, as opposed to $35, 000 last year.Further, those receiving public assistance will get $600 more taking it to $5,500 per month and pensioners will get $900 more making it $7,500per month.Corbin said that his party has been calling for such increases for some time and so it was very “ironic” that the increases were announced in an election year.The Finance Minister also announced that Commercial companies would pay five per cent less in corporation tax—from 45 per cent to 40 per cent. The telephone companies would continue to pay 45 per cent. Non-commercial companies would pay 30 per cent, down from 35 per cent.Corbin said that while the big companies will benefit from a tax reprieve, the consumers of Guyana continue to be burdened with paying 16 per cent Valued Added Tax (VAT).He said that with the increase in payments to pensioners and those receiving public assistance, and with the drop in taxes big companies will pay, the expectation would have been a minimum 15 per cent increase in salaries for public servants and a reduction in VAT.Mr Raphael Trotman of the Alliance for Change (AFC) said that the AFC was expecting nothing but just entertainment.“It is the election year, so this budget was obviously geared to be one of fluff and pageantry.It is intended to prepare the nation for elections and to give the incumbent party more than a footstool to campaign on an uneven playing field,” Trotman charged.He said the AFC was disappointed that issues of workers have been brushed aside, particularly raising the income tax threshold. The AFC had argued that income earners should start paying tax on a salary $50,000 and over, especially with the windfall collected from VAT ($43 billion last year).He said that the AFC was concerned that there were no answers to the rising crime situation even though billions of dollars are being spent.He said that some of the projects announced in the budget are good, but they would only work if other systems are in place. For example, he said the plan to provide every family with a laptop was good, “but people are crying out for jobs, for food, for opportunities.”Trotman argued that having a laptop without being able to afford electricity or not having food on the table doesn’t make sense.“That is where the fluff is,” he said.Former Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, said that the budget was crafted with an election in mind, since it has a lot of goodies to lure voters while the questions of accountability and security remain.Greenidge said that the budget was short on announcing a way out of the high levels of unemployment and poverty.He also said the budget does not address the problems of the urban destitute and the mentally unstable, among others. |
