Former President calls out Govt for “deception” on environmental tax

Former President Donald Ramotar
Former President Donald Ramotar

Former President Donald Ramotar on Friday lashed out at the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) for what it said is its deceptiveness in relation to the environmental tax.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, during his 2017 Budget presentation, announced that Government will be reintroducing the Environmental Tax on plastic bottles. Ramotar said the fact that Government is reimposing it once more shows it’s “vindictiveness and the practice of deception that it has engaged in”. He said it also shows that for them, Guyana is not a priority.

“What is most important to them is power, not the development of the country, but to lord it over the people and enrich themselves”, Ramotar said.

He said the tax was imposed on soft drinks in plastic bottles that were being imported several years ago. According to Ramotar, that move had the effect of encouraging companies that were importing these items to produce the bottles here, which would be more cost effective, rather than importing them.

At the same time, it resulted in protection for local manufacturers.

He said one of the companies, Rudisa Beverages, had taken the then PPP/C Government to court for what it described as a discriminatory tax that violated the Caricom Treaty on trade. The company won the case in Guyana’s courts on the Government appealed and the matter was taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Ramotar said at this point, the PPP/C and Rudisa had agreed that they would remove the discrimination and reduce the tax from $10 to $5 per bottle, but applied it to all the companies, including the local companies. The company was willing to drop the case and the CCJ agreed to give us time to settle the matter.

He said settling the matter entailed going to the Parliament to change the law.

“The whole situation was explained to the then Opposition, the APNU/AFC. Their support was needed to pass the bill to amend the law. Recall that together, they had a one-seat majority in the National Assembly. They knew if this was not passed, it would have cost the Guyana Government more than $1 billion.”

Ramotar said the then combined opposition voted against the amendment imposed by Finance Minister Ashni Singh. That therefore left the CCJ no choice but to rule in favour of Rudisa Beverages, awarding them more than G$1 billion. The actual figure was US$6.2 million.

“By then, the Government changed and it was the APNU/AFC regime that had to pay that amount. It was poetic justice in a way because it resulted from their selfishness and anti-national position. It is our taxpayers that had to pay that settlement.”

According to Ramotar, now, in less than two years of the regime, the tax had been reinstated.

“Only now, they are making it onerous on our manufacturers. Instead of the $5 proposed by the PPP/C, they have imposed $10”.

The former Head of State said this will only serve to discourage production as it penalises the local manufacturers. He said the new move is another measure in the budget that would discourage production, as it pressures the local producers.