THE National Budget for 2012 was presented yesterday before the National Assembly by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, under the theme ‘Remaining on Course, United in Purpose, Prosperity for All’ the largest budget in our country’s history, at a total of $192.8 billion. Guyana Chronicle sought the reactions of Members of Parliament of the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic on this year’s budget.
Prime Minister and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and PPP/C MP, Samuel Hinds – “I was very enthused with it. I think that the theme for it “United in Purpose and Prosperity for All’, I found it very uplifting and I found that the provisions in the budget reflected that theme. We see in the budget that we have made increases, improvements in old age pensions, and other assistance to persons who may not be so able, and we are continuing the investment in the infrastructure and improving the opportunities for people to work and earn.
I know that people speak very much about having larger incomes and always talking about legislating higher rates of pay; but you can’t legislate a higher rate of pay – a higher rate of pay comes out of our work, increasing production and productivity. There are lots on training, there are lots on infrastructure, there is the movement of education and health to higher levels – I think all those things are continuing the path that we have been on. I think this government people take it for granted, maybe too easily, the fact that we have been for six years now and hopefully again in 2012, on a path which has seen the economy growing”.
Minister of Labour and PPP/C MP, Dr. Nanda Gopaul – “It is a tremendous budget. It has something for everyone, and I think basically, I am looking forward to supporting the budget in the debate, and to say how pleased I am with the Minister’s presentation.
PPP/C MP, Reverend, Dr. Kwame Gilbert – I think that, as expected, some of the measures that the minister outlined recognises I think where we are as a country; recognises also our constraints, but a commitment to continued development. We are looking forward to a very robust discussion and debate. Judging from the reactions of the Opposition, I am sure that this is going to be an interesting discussion; but at the end of it, I believe that they are going to give their support because much of the measures I believe are in the interest of the development of our country and the well-being of our people.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs and PPP/C MP Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett – “I think the budget has some very important inclusions for many of the communities. I think if you look at it, you would see there is something for everyone in it, in the circumstances of where we find ourselves today, I mean many of the countries in the Caribbean and further afield are really having difficulties, and I think even with the difficulties that we might have, we have been able to include something for everyone in the budget”.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs and PPP/C MP Anil Nandlall  – “The budget of 2012, as expected, is a comprehensive document and it embraces the government’s  assessment of what transpired in 2011, as well as the projections and the plans for 2012. Every single sector is addressed and dealt with at length in the budget; it is a budget that continues the programme of development which the PPP has been pursuing since 1992. Again, if you look at the budget, you will see that over one third of it has been allocated to the social sector, because this is the sector that addresses the needs and wants of the working and vulnerable people and children – that general policy scene has continued.
Significantly, while we continue to emphasis the importance of traditional sectors – the policy of the budget seeks to shift directly and focus on the non-traditional sectors, in the government’s continued effort to diversify the economy, hence, you heard reference being made to manganese and other minerals that are being explored. You heard the oil industry being referred to, agricultural industries expanding beyond rice and sugar. The government continues with the housing project aggressively to ensure that every Guyanese has a house, the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme continues, and of course, in terms of social interventions, you have the increase in old age pensions, the increase in public assistance, you have increases in the bracket for income tax that will enable more disposable income to be available to the people of Guyana. You heard the great expansions in the legal sector, I would deal with those more in my budget presentation; so by and large, it is a budget that continues progress and development which was started by the PPP administration in 1992, it is a continuous effort”.

Minister of Public Service and PPP/C MP Dr. Jennifer Webster – “I think this budget represents most of the progressive policies that the government has been proffering over the last five years, and we are seeing now, this is 2012, again we have had the largest budget that we have seen, and in this budget, you can see it is geared to ensure that all of our developmental projects, that they come to fruition. A very important issue is we have seen the tax threshold being raised to $50,000 a month, which will bring great relief to the public servants. We have also seen improvement in the old age pension, improvement in social assistance, and we have seen education, health, infrastructure all of those things, additional monies were put there, and I hope that those persons who have been clamouring for increased wages, that they would look at this thing holistically, and realise that it is not only about increased wages, because the public servants are persons in this country who will be accessing the health service, the education service, using our roads and bridges – so all of that enters into the equation; so I am hoping this will be looked at holistically to see the benefits that they will accrue over the next year”.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport and PPP/C MP Dr. Frank Anthony – “I think it is a great budget, especially in the area of culture and sports. As you know, we are very pleased that we have monies for the warm-up pool. Next year, we are working with the swimming association to host a CARIFTA swimming games here, so now that we have money in the budget to do the warm-up pool, we will be able to comfortably host this international meet, and this is going to be the first time that Guyana would be able to host an event like this in swimming.
Of course, there is money in there also for the synthetic athletic track and we are going to work very hard to complete it with the monies now that we have in this year’s budget. There are also other monies in there for young people to continue our training programmes, especially for the young people, some of them who would have dropped out of school, we have special programmes that give them a second opportunity at getting an education and more monies have been voted in this year’s budget to have programme like that, so I am very happy about the numbers in the budget, especially for my sector”.

PPP/C MP and Chief Whip Gail Teixeira –  “This is a budget that is taking Guyana along the path of progress and building on what we were able to accomplish in the last five years, and continue to build on that. And we have been able to reach a level of economic stability. We have able to increase the income tax threshold to $50,000…for a little country with a small population that is a major achievement, and that in a way is an indirect way to put more money in people’s pockets and to be able to raise the standard of living. So when you listen to Minister Ashni, he is speaking about the growth of the different sectors and the productive sectors and so on, that certainly Guyana is on a good path.
The main challenge for Guyana is to continue to retain the achievements that we have made and to continue to build on those and that requires not only the economic stability and growth, it requires political mature leadership and better behaviour in the Parliament by all the sides, so that we are able to continue making this country go forward. So let us hope that having heard the budget, the Opposition will now come to their senses and recognise that the PPP knows what it was doing as a government in terms of the economy, and that in the budget debates, they will be able to recognise that Guyana is moving forward, and let us work together, both government and the opposition parties, to continue to make this country even a better place than it is today; and so this is also a budget that I think is one of the first that we have been able to mainly fund from our own resources, and so we have a lot to be proud of as Guyanese”.