FINANCE Minister Dr Ashni Singh has issued a call for the opposition to put the interest of the people first when assessing and debating the 2013 Budget.

Speaking on a recent installment of the programme ‘Budget 2013 at a Glance’ aired on the National Communications Network (NCN), Dr Singh said the opposition’s consideration of Budget 2013 must be on whether it is good for Guyana.
The Minister is also confident that if Budget 2013 is so judged, then there will be unanimous support for it.
“We ultimately have to be guided constantly by what is good for Guyana, and not by wheeling our vote in parliament…the question we must constantly ask ourselves is, whether this is good for Guyana…and while I understand that the opposition have to do their bit in the political contest, I would say this, that ultimately what they say and do in parliament must be guided by the national interest, and the interest of the people of Guyana,” the Minister said.
“I believe that if they ask themselves that question, they would find that Budget 2013 has much that is good for Guyana and guided by that, they vote in favour of the Budget. I hope that this is the result,” he added.
The Finance Minister also called for mature budget discourse. “I hope that we see a mature and responsible Budget debate, informed not by rhetorical political extortions, but by serious, rigorous analysis, fact based analysis, by an objective assessment of what is good for Guyana and once that is the case, we will see unanimous support of Budget 2013,” he said.
The debate on the 2013 budget begins today.