Budget spells bleak Christmas for 2016

… double taxation on businesses will hurt our economy ― Ramsaroop

The debate over the 2017 Budget begins today in earnest, but the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government will be hard-pressed to defend it.

This obtains given the mounting consternation from sections of society, including the political Opposition, the Private Sector, labour and civil society.
The measures announced in Budget 2017 have also attracted significant criticism from financial analysts, economists, business consultants and strategists; the latest being Peter Ramsaroop, the former AFC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who appeared on the campaign trail for the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Ramsaroop, who had been a candidate on that party’s list, joined with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo over the weekend to reach out to the business community.
He later joined with Guyana Times for an exclusive post-Budget analysis ahead of the beginning of the debate, and he too railed against several of the measures outlined by Finance Minister Winston Jordan, saying it has laid the groundwork for a bleak Christmas.
Ramsaroop told Guyana Times that economies were driven in part by consumer spending and, “this Budget for both businesses and consumers gives no comfort to spend more this Christmas… The accountant Jordan acted like he was smart; he presented a budget that takes more of our hard-earned money in order to fund the wasted pet projects of this government… double taxation on businesses will hurt our economy.”
He told Guyana Times that a finance minister has to be gravely incompetent to present such a budget just before the Christmas season, and suggested too that the measly 2.6 per cent growth he projected may very well not be attainable.

1980s economic policies
He called the proposals by Jordan representative of 1980s’ economic policies—policies that the Administration has no problem implementing since they are individually well-off.
“This is so easy for APNU/AFC President and Ministers to implement… They are enjoying over one million a month, free housing, free electricity and water… cooks, guards, cellphones, telephones, Internet, drivers, trips around the world,” said Ramsaroop.
He recalled that during the 1980s – Burnham’s era – Guyanese were restricted on the amount of money that they could leave the country with, “fast forward to his protégé President Granger, he is taxing us more on passports, so if we want to travel, we will have to be punished, let us make business less competitive by taxing them more, and force them out of the country, like the mass exodus in the 70s and 80s… This is an alarming trend that we as a people need to take serious note of.”
Expanding on the matter of the Value Added Tax (VAT), Ramsaroop observed that although the rate was reduced, the Government then expanded the base for collection.
“This meant that mostly the poor who did not pay VAT will now pay… Most of us know that our water bill is over $1500 and electricity for most homes is over $10,000.”
According to Ramsaroop, “Jordon, the accountant who wants more money to spend randomly, believes it’s a clever move… It is simply a regressive tax… Their failures to stimulate the economy are evident in this budget.”
Seeking to break down the figures presented by the Finance Minister, Ramsaroop noted that the projected total revenue collection for 2016 is $174.8 billion, which is 0.9 per cent more than that budgeted and 7.4 per cent better than in 2015. According to Ramsaroop, Jordan said that this was projected to rise.
Meanwhile, VAT collection is projected to increase by 1.7 per cent to $36 billion.
“So if we were truly getting a reduction in VAT in 2017, shouldn’t the number go down rather than up? As we say around town, ‘de man nah smart, bai’, he is getting more revenues, they are getting free water and electricity and yet APNU/AFC taxes us more.”
The former AFC CEO told Guyana Times that Minister Jordan was not an economist and that his “goal is to get money from us, not grow the money we have.”
Expanding on Jordan’s proposed taxation, Ramsaroop noted the words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who said, “For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
According to Ramsaroop, the APNU/AFC Government believes in making the masses suffer; with “the incompetence’s of a government without a smart leader, with an incompetent Finance Minister, Guyana is bound to regress.”