Dear Editor,
De facto Finance Minister Winston Jordan, in an epistle which appeared in the July 29 edition of the Stabroek News, sought to assuage concerns about the economy and obviously defend his stewardship as minister. In his missive, Mr Jordan covered several matters, among which was the Coalition’s handling of the sugar industry. It is on this area we wish to offer a frank response.
In speaking to sugar, the Minister pours scorn on those who have been critical of the Government’s policy. This is most unfortunate, as the realities of that policy are there to be seen. This was warned by the GAWU, and several others who presumably are labelled by Mr Jordan as the “…long list of detractors…”.
The Minister has said that, “…in 2014, the Wales, Skeldon and Enmore estates operated at losses in excess of $1.5 billion.” Using the Minister’s figures, what has been the loss to the economy by the closure of those three (3) estates? Those estates cumulatively employed more than 5,000 workers, who would have paid taxes – income and value added; their consumption activities would have supported hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses; their contributions to the NIS would have enhanced the Scheme; similarly their payments of rates and taxes to their NDCs would benefit the community. Apart from that, those estates maintained the drainage and irrigation system, provided primary health care to workers, their families and pensioners, and operated community centres which benefited all.
So, now what do we have? We have lost those taxes; the NIS has announced that is has found itself in troubled waters; businesses in those areas have slowed to a crawl or folded altogether, and life has become miserable overall. It is instructive to point out that Government was required to allocate in excess of $1.5B to the NDIA to maintain the drainage and irrigation system in the closed estate areas.
But let’s go beyond that. Those estates produced sugar and molasses, which brought in large quantities of foreign exchange. When they were fully operable, hundreds of millions of US dollars flowed to the national coffers. Now they are mere shadows of what they once were. And, worse yet, that ‘hole’ which was created is yet to be filled. No wonder the foreign and gold reserves had to be liquidated.
The Minister trumpets the $30B bond for the industry. With flowery language, the Minister waxes lyrically about GuySuCo becoming “…a model to be emulated, producing about 150,000 tonnes of sugar in the medium term.” But only if all that glitters were gold. The sad fact is that the Government, in the form of NICIL, has largely withheld financial support from GuySuCo, with no project earmarked to improve the industry’s well-being yet breaking ground. So, the Minister can blow his trumpet until he gets blue in the face, the fact is that, if his Administration were really concerned, as he says, we would have seen positive moves.
In a seemingly denigrating manner, Mr Jordan speaks about his Government’s support for the sugar industry, which is aggregated to $38 billion. This figure has to be contrasted with the $1.2 trillion the Minister and his Government spent up to the 2019 Budget. So, to talk about 3 per cent of the total spending benefitting more than a 100,000 Guyanese is something the Minister should not lament. However, the fact that he has taken such a tone seems, in our view, to indicate there is more in the mortar than the pestle can pound.
At the end of his missive, the Minister urges that “…evidence-based analysis…” be undertaken before arriving at conclusions. We share the Minister’s view, but are simultaneously disturbed that his Government hadn’t taken such an approach in regard to its disastrous sugar policy, which has harmed the lives and welfare of thousands of Guyanese, and which still can put in harm’s way thousands more.
Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU
