CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of Roraima Group of Companies, and former Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman, Captain Gerry Gouveia, said he looks forward to a National Budget for 2012 which will continue in the trend of structured management of the economy, while he looks forward to a healthy and respectful debate in Parliament. Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, will today, be presenting the 2012 National Budget before the National Assembly.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle, the well-known businessman, who has been very involved in the development of travel and tourism in Guyana, said, “I am actually looking forward to the continued structured management of the economy, like we have been seeing in the last couple of years.”
“That has been able to foster and create the kind of confidence in the economy that has been able to attract foreign and local investors to expand our businesses and investment in Guyana,” he stated.
Reiterating that he would like to see the budget continuing along that trend, Captain Gouveia  said, from a local standpoint, he would like to see more money put into marketing Guyana.
“I am not talking about marketing tourism, but marketing Guyana as a country, positioning Guyana in the world. We need to have a marketing strategy and we need to see a budget earmarked to do that, so people in the world could know that Guyana is a wonderful English-speaking country on the continent of South America, and then particularly, to also target our diaspora,” he explained.
Adding, “We need to have that marketing strategy that would target the diaspora to bring them up to scratch with what is happening in Guyana, to encourage them to come back home and invest and visit and so on”.
He also touched on the issue of hinterland airstrip development, noting, “I would like to see the minister pay a lot more attention to putting money into the hinterland airstrip development and navigation aids, and also money to enhance our search and rescue capability which is very important to aviation development, tourism development, and the development of our hinterland”.
Alluding to tax reform, he said, “Particularly for me, I would love to be able to see where the middle-income Guyanese could get a tax break so we could look at a way of reducing the PAYE (Pay as You Earn) and maybe even moving that threshold so that across the board people could get a relief”.
“We in the private sector, and I could say this generally, last year we welcomed the reduction of the corporation tax,” Captain Gouveia recalled, adding that they would like to see that kind of reform continue.
“Because with the advent of VAT (Value Added Tax), we wanted to see the mitigating factors to support the reduction of VAT happen, which is holistic tax reform. I don’t believe it would be completed before the budget, but we would certainly like to see elements of it in the budget,” the pilot expressed.
In terms of consultation, he said, through the National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS), the private sector has been, on “a regular and continuous basis”, engaging with the Minister of Finance and the President.

“We have moved away a very long time ago from having these one-off photo opportunities consultation. We have more of a continuous engagement so that the minister is listening to us and we are listening to him, so no longer was it necessary for us to have these one-off consultations with a photo opportunity to say we met with the minister,” he underscored.
In terms of the debate in Parliament, Gouveia said he looks forward to a healthy and respectful debate, adding, “…that in the final analysis, we could find common ground to move forward.”
He went on, “There are so many things happening, there are so many jobs being created and there is a lot of optimism in the economy and in the private sector, about where the country is going, so we welcome a healthy debate.”
Meanwhile, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Mr. Komal Ramnauth, said the Chamber would like to see a further reduction in corporate taxes, a reduction in the income tax, and the raising of the threshold.
“These are some of the things, we in the private sector, would like to see happen,” he said, noting that the private sector has been working towards these things over the years.
In terms of the budget debate, the GCCI President said he would like to see a sensible debate in Parliament, in the interest of the people of Guyana.
In 2011, the rate for corporation tax was adjusted downwards from 45 to 40 percent, except for telephone companies. Further, the corporation tax for non-commercial companies was revised from 40 to 35 percent.