People looking for concrete action, not empty rhetoric (Pt 1)

Dear Editor,
The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change’s (APNU/AFC) Finance Minister, Winston Jordan made a huge deal recently and his colleagues are parroting the meaningless Budget 2018 promise that there would be no new taxes in the 2018 Budget. It is a meaningless promise because the problem is not simply how many more taxes APNU/AFC will increase in its 4th budget since assuming office, given that the most noteworthy feature of the three previous ones is that each massively increased taxes for the people. What the Guyanese people from all walks of life, but particularly the working class people are looking for is tax relief.
In its 2015, 2016 and 2017 budgets, budgets that were supposed to establish frameworks for “a good life”, APNU/AFC and Jordan increased taxes through higher rates for existing taxes and the introduction of new taxes. Whether old taxes or new taxes, the Guyanese people were subjected to burdensome taxes in more than 200 different taxes, with unbearable increases in cost of living. There were new taxes, for instance, through VAT for education, water and electricity; all of which were always treated in Guyana by the previous PPP Governments as public good, things exempted from taxation. Even donkey carts had to pay increased licensing fees. Farmers were forced to pay taxes for the small-scale cash crops they either sold from their homes or at community markets. House-front vendors, selling sugar cake and cane juice had to pay taxes. This is what concerns the Guyanese people. This track record of Jordan and APNU/AFC is what stirs fear among people.
The truth is there is little new taxes that can be introduced since there were so many in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 budgets. The truth is that the more than 200 new taxes, either because they were introduced for the first time or because they were increased, do not permit any room for new taxes. What the people are looking for and what businesses are looking for in order to catalyse the economy is a tax break. The demand of the people is for tax relief. Jordan, Nagamootoo and their colleagues are playing wordsmith – they say no new taxes, but do not mention anything about reducing taxes. But reducing taxes is the crux of the matter.
Since 2015, there have been robust protests and dissatisfaction relating to the burdensome taxes. Workers, poor families, the business community, particularly the small, village-level businesses, professionals across the political divide, have all protested in vain about the new taxes.
Indeed, there have been across the board condemnation and protracted public protest and public shaming of Jordan and APNU/AFC for introducing taxes on private education, including school fees, and educational materials. It forced the AFC and the WPA to publicly, but shamelessly, disown the taxes, even though they voted for it at Cabinet level and in Parliament.

Sincerely,
Dr Leslie Ramsammy