APNU/AFC’s $200k motion a political gimmick, not realistic – VP Jagdeo

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has dismissed a motion filed by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition for every adult Guyanese to be given a $200,000 cash grant to ease the burden of the rising cost of living, saying that not only is this a political gimmick but it is also economically unrealistic and impractical.

“That motion that they put in Parliament to give every Guyanese $200,000 is a gimmick; it’s designed to excite people to think they have money but it is not realistic, it is not practical, it’s not wise to do that. You can’t fund it and it will put us in more debt, and it would waste money [so] we can’t build the future taking that approach,” Jagdeo said.
The motion was filed by Opposition Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson. It calls on the Government to immediately craft strategies to address the high cost of living.
According to the motion, “And Be It Further Resolved that the Government of Guyana, make provisions for Each Guyanese above the age of eighteen (18) years be paid a quarterly cash grant of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.00), which will compensate for the increase in the cost of living”.
But according to the Vice President, if the Government were to do this then it would take up all of the oil revenues Guyana has earned, and even that might not be sufficient to sustain such an initiative.
“We haven’t spent a cent of the oil resources as yet… If you do what they’re suggesting there, we will have to spend every cent of the oil money that we get and eat it up – give it to everybody. We can’t spend it on training people and on educating them. We can’t [build] the hospitals and the schools, and the new roads that you need, or the power plants for the country. So, you’re eating up every cent that you earn, and it would still not be enough.”
“And you don’t have anything else to do – any long-term development of this country,” he asserted.
Jagdeo went on to outline that it is this lack of vision that caused Guyana to be in the state it was in when the APNU/AFC was in office. He pointed to the coalition’s budgets during its term in office from 2015, in which they spent less on capital expenditure while the current spending increased by more than 70 per cent.
The Vice President explained that it is the capital side of the expenditure where infrastructure for the future is built, new industries are created and new wealth are created. This, he underscored, is especially critical when the oil resources are depleted so that the country can have sustainable and viable sectors to fall back on.
“I can’t imagine any sane person, any sensible person falling for that. That same philosophy – living above your means – caused Guyana to collapse economically in 1992… But that is not the People’s Progressive Party, that’s not our philosophy. We transformed the country from what we took over in 1992 to today, the most viable economy, I would say, in this part of the world,” Jagdeo stated.
Moreover, the Vice President further pointed out that the APNU/AFC is now concerned about the cost of living when under that coalition government, Guyanese were burdened with a host of tax regimes, which the PPP/C Administration had to reverse when it returned to office in 2020 while simultaneously dealing with the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Imagine APNU saying they are concerned about [the cost of living] when they are the ones who put VAT (Value-Added Tax) on water and electricity. Contrast that with what we did; we removed the tax on water and electricity. Although now all these costs have gone up and fuel prices have gone up, we made a commitment as a Government to keep water and electricity prices at the same rate they are today… That’s a massive subsidy from the Government so that it doesn’t push up cost of living higher. So, when they talk about these things, they have absolutely no credibility,” Jagdeo stressed.
Nevertheless, the APNU/AFC Opposition’s motion comes on the heels of VP Jagdeo only two days ago announcing the removal of excise tax on fuel importation in order to ease the burden on the local population amidst the rising cost of living globally.
“Excise tax on gasoline and diesel now reduced from 50 per cent to zero,” Jagdeo announced on Wednesday.
This the third time since taking office in 2020, the PPP/C Government has reduced excise tax on fuel importation to cushion the impact locally.
Meanwhile, the excise tax removal is in addition to a $5 billion allocation in the 2022 budget that was set aside for various Government interventions to reduce the impact of increasing prices on the global market in Guyana.
Only last week, President Dr Irfaan Ali said his Government is currently finalising an approach for a national consultation on the best options to address the “multi-faceted problem” caused by rising prices.
“We’ve already started that and the Government will be continuing, aggressively, discussions with a cross-section of Guyanese [and] communities so that we can come up with the best possible approach – listening to ideas, listening to some of the connected issues and then coming up with some policies,” the President told Guyana Times on the sidelines of an event.