Jagdeo jabs at Govt’s lack of “fiscal space” excuse for sugar sector

5th Regional IUF Conference

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo took a jab at the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government for its role in phasing out the sugar industry, with the excuse it lacked fiscal space.

The Opposition Leader was delivering remarks during the opening of the fifth

Regional Conference of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association (IUF) at the Grand Coastal Inn on Wednesday.

Jagdeo stressed that Government was moving blindly towards the total annihilation of the sugar sector, an industry that thousands of Guyanese rely on.

Total annihilation

“If sugar fails in Guyana, it will have a systematic impact. Almost 15 per cent of our GDP [Gross Domestic Product] depends on the sugar industry. Now imagine the withdrawal of 15 per cent of your GDP. Almost 100,000 people rely on sugar, some communities more so than others. Some communities will die because their sole source is sugar,” Jagdeo told the more than 35 delegates from Caribbean countries.

The Opposition Leader reminded that Guyana has had to deal with sugar for a long time and many times on the side of the unions.

“Because the Union has always been fighting when I was President, but we never had wages freeze in the sugar industry in the last 30 years. The last two years since the Government took over we have had two freezing.”

He pointed out that the 64-year-old Annual Production Incentive (API) was taken away this year, because Government claimed it had no “fiscal space”. “Government says we cannot continue to fund sugar and, therefore, we will have to close estates and privatise others,” the Opposition Leader said.

Available resources

Meanwhile, Jagdeo said while Government claimed it could not find resources to put into the industry, it was able to give a tax write-off to the Demerara Distillers Limited, a company that produces alcohol. That, he said, will have implications for the treasury.

“It’s about G$70 to $80 billion or US$400 million. We needed only $8 billion to keep Wales Estate open, which would have saved 17,000 jobs and the entire West Bank of more than 25,000 people would have not seen their disposable income destroyed… One company gets a huge benefit like that and the sugar industry cannot be kept going,” he said.

He added that with the money being pumped into that local company, Government could have subsidised sugar for the next 10 years and kept all the estates going without any need to privatise any of them.

Further, Jagdeo lashed out at Finance Minister Winston Jordan and his 2017 National Budget, which he said undoubtedly placed further strain on the poor and working class. He spoke of pensioners whose subsidies for water and electricity were cut off and the addition of Value Added Tax on same. All of this, he said, has happened because of Government’s excuse that it did not have fiscal space.

“And we cannot help the sugar industry because we do not have the fiscal space and so a layman listening to the Minister of Finance; it sounds like reasonable arguments because we do not have the money to finance these activities,” Jagdeo added.

Solidarity

Meanwhile, delegates at the conference declared that they were in full solidarity with the Guyanese sugar workers and their representative organisations during what they described as a “challenging period”.

“We roundly condemn the rollback of workers’ gains won through long and arduous struggles; the disregard of national laws and agreements; the disrespect shown to long-standing and time-honoured norms, conventions and principles, among the other injustices that have been meted out by the State-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) in recent times,” the delegates said in a unified statement on Wednesday.

They called on GuySuCo and Government, as the owner of the industry, to ensure that the sugar workers’ rights, conditions and benefits were respected and upheld at all times.

“We denounce too the closure of the Wales Estate which has placed livelihoods of many Guyanese at grave risk and urge that the closure decision be withdrawn, even at this late stage. We must express, as well, our strongest condemnation over plans and proposals that will, in effect, cause further estate closures and sell-out and, if pursued, will see the many thousands of Guyanese facing a most uncertain and bleak future”

The sugar industry, the delegates said, represents an important pillar of the Guyanese economy and plays a manifold role in the society. “Moreover, the industry, we are aware, is capable of surmounting its present challenges and can play an even more significant role in Guyana. At this time, we reiterate our fullest solidarity with the thousands of sugar workers and their unions.

“We call on the Government of Guyana and the GuySuCo to engage in meaningful discussions with the unions, with a view to safeguard the sugar industry and to protect jobs.”