…or contempt?
Months before he presented the 2018 Budget, Finance Minister Jordan erected huge billboards at strategic locations across the land, to herald the event. Now that he’s actually delivered the Budget, one wonders what came into his head to bring attention to what has to be the most lacklustre Budget in decades. And then he had the unmitigated gall to label the dud, “The Journey to the Good Life Continues”!!
Can you believe it? For a journey to “continue”, it must’ve already begun, right? Your Eyewitness waited with bated breath to be enlightened about even the “little first step” he was told some journeys begin with. After four hours – by which time he was almost asphyxiated – he gave up while writhing on the floor! An economy that would “grow” at best 2.9 per cent rather than the projected 3.8 per cent – and that, only via one product – gold – signals the “good life” for few.
Most of those gold revenues ended up in foreign banks since it was the large foreign gold mining companies that generated the increased production. We collect a couple percentage points of royalty – which the government spent on the 50 per cent raise it gave its Ministers along with the perks like unlimited flying for the PM. It is for THEM, “The Journey to the Good Life Continues”!!
For the rest, it’s not a “journey” but an “odyssey” in which the ordinary Guyanese citizen has faced more trials and tribulations than those ancient Greeks of yore. Last year, for instance, Guyanese workers had to navigate between the “Scylla” of rising prices and the “Charybdis” of a shrinking economy. A Government Budget is supposed to be the Government’s response to the economic challenges facing its citizens – by spending the taxes it collected from those citizens most judiciously.
So imagine the Government boasted it’d collected eight per cent more taxes last year than in the previous year – yet the rate of growth fell! That means the citizenry were being sucked even drier while there was nothing to be seen for the spending. But that shouldn’t be surprising since this government cannot comprehend the truism that it can’t reap mangoes (the good life) if it only plants daisies (parades, ceremonies and jobs for the boys).
Man may not live on bread alone, and daisies may look pretty, but they can’t satiate that gnawing hunger, can they? Look at the climbing wage bill of the Government…what exactly are these extra people producing? If the economy’s shrinking, why do you need more administrators? The Government needs to understand only one word: stimulate!
Stimulate the economy so that jobs (and salaries) are generated. That’ll be the start of the journey.
…and sugar
During its first stint at the wheel, the PNC lucked into a bull market for sugar when the British firm Bookers owned the industry. It imposed a levy on sugar which immediately raked in US$450 million – which would be worth US$2.1 billion today. And continued to rake in that levy until it demitted office in 1992…when the PPP continued it until 2003. In the 29 years, the levy pretty much kept the country afloat.
Yet today, this government – which can present a Budget boasting, “The Journey to the Good Life Continues” – can blithely talk about sugar “sucking the life” from the Guyanese economy!! The CoI, which it appointed, proposed that specific injections of funds be made to bring the industry to a solid point of sale. The Government rejected that advice and is preparing to fire another 6000 sugar workers after the first 1700 from Wales.
To say the economy would’ve grown 4.6 per cent if not for sugar is a callous betrayal of workers who kept this country afloat for decades. PNC ingrates!!
…and “no taxes”
The Government doesn’t believe that “no” means “no”. After promising “no new taxes”, the Government says it will increase property taxes throughout Guyana.
