by Ryhaan Shah
It is not just that water and electricity supply is poor and intermittent throughout the country at best but to now have VAT applied to these utilities’ charges is plain eye-pass.
When Finance Minister Winston Jordan explained that VAT would be added to water and light bills to spur conservation efforts this was further eye-pass. He knows full well that conservation is already enforced on taxpayers since, in some areas, there are more blackouts than power supply, and the low water pressure means there is no water in the pipes.
But the most worrying item of the 2017 Budget is the proposal to give GRA powers to access taxpayers’ bank accounts in order to garnish monies owed to the agency.
The Private Sector Commission is correct when it stated that this would scare people into closing their bank accounts. More money being kept at home will certainly aid and abet Guyana’s already thriving criminal enterprise.
At a time when Government has been advocating the use of more plastic for financial transactions, this move would be counterproductive. It also creates more than a little uneasiness that Government intends to invest itself with the power to reach into privately held accounts and take whatever is owed them.
This is intrusive and is a move towards authoritarianism that must be resisted. If Government succeeds in establishing such rights over citizens, it would be the start down a slippery slope where every other right and freedom would be under threat.
Since the Granger Government is not shy about its racism and partisanship, it would appreciate the further fear that these powers could be used as a weapon to wilfully harass and punish opponents.
Just recently, President David Granger addressed Lindeners, who continue to be favoured with a subsidised power supply, and spoke of the township becoming a manufacturing hub. To this end, the Budget proposes the infrastructural development of the Linden-Brazil highway.
This while the agricultural sector – a traditional Indian Guyanese labour base – is left to languish and die with no planned state intervention to rescue, retool or restrategize this once vital revenue-earning sector.
To the public eye, the racism is clear.
The purposeful neglect is shameful especially when Guyana once boasted of becoming the food-basket of the Caribbean. There was much pride in being a nation of farmers and agriculturalists and when food is fast becoming a dwindling resource as the world population increases, Government’s de-emphasis of the agricultural sector is short-sighted. The skills, if lost, could harm Guyana’s future economic prospects.
The economy has shrunk with real GDP growth falling to 2.6% this year, down from 3% in 2015, and none of Government’s promised investments has materialised.
Guyana’s international reserves have also fallen and are now below the 4-month benchmark – the accepted global standard – to 3.9 months. If this trend continues this could result in restrictions being applied to imports because of limited foreign exchange reserves.
Glaringly absent from the Budget is any plan to build a hydroelectric plant, a green resource that should have been established long before it became fashionable; and waiting for oil to gush and save Guyana while the economy tanks appears both lazy and uncaring.
With the economy on a downward trajectory and traditional export earners like rice and sugar on the ropes, the Budget focuses heavily on gouging an already poor nation of every fee and tax possible. With all the corruptions that have come to light since the Granger Government came to power, this is the biggest eye-pass of all: that every ordinary citizen will have to pay up to provide the billions required for Cabinet’s supersize salaries and their high lifestyle gained by some through their exposed corrupt practices.
Whereas everyone expects Government to act positively to help turn around an ailing economy, this administration has no such sense of urgency and seems incapable of creating policies that would attract investors, create employment, and drive economic growth.
Instead, we will all be paying more for everything from passports and airport departure taxes to transferring a vehicle registration. Medicines and medical supplies and our internet and digital services will all cost more and the measly increase in old age pension along with the 2 per cent reduction in VAT are hardly compensatory.
Local manufacturers will also no longer be able to recoup the VAT paid on raw materials and these costs will now be carried over to the consumer who will have to pay higher prices for locally made products.
Imprisoned by Guyana’s continued sad state of affairs, even our bread and water will now be taxed.
