APNU/AFC rules Guyana with shocking arrogance and disrespect, even considering their political DNA, now surpassing Burnham’s and the People’s National Congress (PNC) contempt for the people of Guyana. Clearly, policy is a nuisance for them. They prefer gimmicks, disrespect, arrogance and intolerance as their governance blueprint. APNU/AFC eschews policy-driven governance, preferring gimmick-based trickery.
Take APNU/AFC’s response to Cuba and Fidel Castro. No kerfuffling, Guyana owes Fidel Castro and Cuba profound gratitude. No country and no single person have been more generous to Guyana than Cuba and Fidel Castro. That Cuba and Fidel were mortal enemies of America has no diminishing effect on the friendship and generosity Fidel bestowed on Guyana. Their solidarity with the Guyanese people was unflinching and they asked nothing in return.
I know had Donald Ramotar, Bharrat Jagdeo, Sam Hinds, Janet Jagan, Cheddi Jagan, Desmond Hoyte or Forbes Burnham been President at the time of Fidel’s death, they would have personally attended the funeral of Fidel. What America thinks would not have dictated their presence in Havana to say “Guyana thanks you, Fidel”. Granger, however, had a more important obligation – attend the 50th Independence Anniversary of Barbados. No quarrel there, but it is disgraceful, disrespectful and simply ungrateful that he chose not to attend the funeral of Fidel.
The 2017 Budget has been widely condemned as an anti-people budget, christened with names like “sufferation” and “gimmick” budget, reminiscent of PNC-era budgets. Even groups loyal to APNU/AFC have expressed utter consternation. Heavy tax burdens will impoverish many Guyanese and the many anti-business measures will strangulate businesses and the economy and suffocate investment. Responding to a crescendo of dissent, Minister Trotman, APNU/AFC’s chief Goebbels, chastised the private sector to stop complaining and whining. APNU/AFC exposes its intolerance for voices of dissent, no matter how genuine the concerns, obfuscating issues with arrogance, disrespect and intolerance. Meanwhile, Jordon calls public servants lethargic and not dedicated.
Sugar workers who have been denied any wage increase for 2015 and 2016 will now also be denied any Annual Production Incentive (API). Since 1940 when Bookers agreed to an annual production bonus, sugar workers have earned an annual incentive payment up to 2015. Sugar workers received this API every year, even after nationalisation in 1976. APNU/AFC eroded this benefit in 2015 when the expected 7.5 days API payment was reduced to about 2 days, among the lowest API payment since 1940. Now API for 2016 is zero. No negotiation, brushing aside workers’ voices while Nagamootoo scurrilously dismissed the sugar workers as ungrateful.
APNU/AFC promised during the 2015 election that they will reduce VAT, income and corporate taxes. Having failed in 2015 and 2016, APNU/AFC resorted to gimmicks in the 2017 Budget to trick people they are reducing VAT from 16 per cent to 14 per cent. But far from reducing VAT burden, they actually increased it by expanding the list of VAT-able items to include water, electricity, medicines, vitamins, educational items like books, computers, the Internet and dozens of items that were previously exempted and zero-rated. One economist estimates that the effective VAT is equivalent to 18 to 20 per cent based on the 2015 VAT-items. It is not a reduction; it is a trick, a gimmick, nothing less. A poor family who might have spent $25,000 per month on VAT-items in 2016 would have actually paid a total of $48,000 in VAT for the year at 16 per cent VAT. In 2017, that same family is likely to spend almost $70,000 to $100,000 because in addition to those 2016 VAT-items, they will also pay 14 per cent VAT on water, electricity and other items. This does not include the increase prices passed on to them by businesses. The 2017 environmental tax on imported and locally manufactured beverages exposes their disrespect and arrogance. The PPP had introduced an environmental tax on imported beverages in the 1990s. RUDISA of Suriname claimed it was a discriminatory tax and the CCJ ordered Guyana to pay RUDISA $US12 million. The case would have fizzled when the PPP sought to expand the tax to include both locally manufactured and imported beverages. APNU/AFC used their one-seat advantage to block the PPP’s effort to remove the discrimination. This was a politically motivated injury to Guyana. Today, APNU/AFC is desperate to raise more money for their squandermania using an environmental tax they blocked in Parliament, calling it then anti-business.
Poor people and the middle class are being double taxed. Not only are they directly taxed, businesses are now going to pass on their increase tax burden on the Guyanese people. Granger, Nagamootoo, Jordon and their colleagues are busy kerfuffling people that the 2017 Budget is based on a policy of tax reduction. They genuinely think they can fool all the Guyanese people all the time or they can dismiss people with arrogance, disrespect and intolerance. Truth is the Guyanese people know the 2017 budget is nothing but gimmicks and trickery.
