Something for everyone, Singh says

FINANCE Minister Dr. Ashni Singh will today present his third Budget in the 10th Parliament to the National Assembly.
Asked about the contents of the 2014 Budget, Singh yesterday said, “Budget 2014 includes a menu of measures that aims to guard, protect and build on our macro-economic stability.”
He stressed that a stable macro-economic environment is important as it relates to attracting investment, creating jobs and improving livelihoods of the people of Guyana.
Singh said, “Understandably, there is much public interest in the Budget, There are many perspectives from which one can view successive budgets.

“The big picture is all about stewardship of the economy and how the economy was managed.
“And the budget provides us the opportunity to report to the nation and the world at large on the performance of the economy over the last year and make projections as it relates to the performance of the economy in the coming year.
“It is no secret that the economy has performed well and this will be reflected in the Budget today, when it comes to dealing with key economic indicators.”
The Minister added that the mirco-economic performance, which is related to individual sectors and beneficiary groups, is another perspective from which the budget can be viewed.
“This perspective looks at how the interest of the Guyanese man and woman can benefit from the various polices; the single woman sending her children to school will look at what the education sector is allocated, new home-owners will look at this particular area, and so on,” he said.
According to him, the Budget contains a number of policy initiatives, some ongoing and some new, that will be of interest to all Guyanese.
“We have been careful over the years to grow public expenditure to meet the demands…not growing public expenditure at a rate that cannot be sustained….there an infinite demands on finite resources,” Singh said.

ELECTIONS BUDGET
There has already been talk in the Opposition camp that the 2014 Budget will be an “elections” Budget, considering calls from the Guyanese for a move to snap elections following the impasse over the non-passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill.
The Finance Minister did not comment on this directly.
“This budget has much that is in the interest of the people of Guyana,” Singh said.
The ruling party’s first public hints of snap elections came at the Cheddi Jagan memorial held at Babu John on March 9.
Addressing the ongoing political gridlock in the National Assembly, the General-Secretary of the party, Clement Rohee, said, “The Parliament is a forum for a struggle for political power…Guyanese have had enough of messing with their lives by their political predecessors.”
He made it clear that the people are tired of the ‘shenanigans’ coming from the combined Opposition and said the people’s disgust would be best demonstrated at the polls.
According to him, the Opposition’s “game plan” is clear for all to see and is one that will land Guyana into economic ruin.
He acknowledged that the party has made mistakes, but noted that the party is “bold and big” enough to admit to such errors and work to make up for them.
“The PPP/C remains the strongest political force in this country,” Rohee posited.
The General-Secretary stated that the best way to pay tribute to Dr. Cheddi Jagan is for all of his supporters to work “hard, ceaselessly, and indefatigably” to retake the majority in the National Assembly.
“The struggle continues, but victory is inevitable,” he said.
2013 PROVISIONS
At the end of last year’s debates, the National Assembly approved an amended $177.4B Budget, which was presented under the theme ‘Overcoming Challenges Together, Accelerating Gains for Guyana’.
However, there were several measures for different sections of the population, including mortgage relief, increase in pensions, and electricity subsidy for Linden, income tax reduction and property and individual tax reductions.
Government’s 2013 Budget was cut by a whopping $31.4B.
Of the $208.8B estimates, $5.2B was slashed from the $10.2B allocated to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL); the entire allocation of $1,250.000B towards the Specialty Hospital Project was cut; the entire Transport Programme Allocation of $5.63B under the Ministry of Public Works was gutted ; the allocation for the Government Information Agency of $135.858M was reduced to $1; the National Communications Network’s allocation of $81.337M was also reduced to $1, and the Low Carbon Development Programme allocation of $20B was reduced to $1B.

NO NEXUS
During last year’s budget debates the joint Opposition outlined its ’11-point’ demands, which the Head of State, President Donald Ramotar rejected as “unrelated” to the Budget.
A reduction of the toll on the Berbice Bridge, which the President explained forms part of a private company, was part of the 11 demands made, while the others were matters Ramotar said would take time for implementation.
He maintained that there was no nexus between the demands and the Opposition’s “assault” on the 2013 Budget.
Ramotar’s comments followed a closed door meeting last April with the Opposition parties over differences on the Budget.
He said, “(Those demands) had nothing to do with the Budget. In fact, at the beginning of the meetings we had, I asked what the nexus is and they said none.”
The President stressed last year that the Opposition’s stance on the Budget was disappointing.
Other Government officials expressed similar sentiments last year.
In giving an overall view of the 2013 National Budget debate, Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh said he was both disappointed and concerned about the Opposition approved motions to cut several key transformational projects.
He said, “There were some disappointments…in particular the major disappointment was the imposition of the cut against the Low Carbon Development Strategy, the GRIF funded projects, which included the Amaila Falls Project, the Amerindian Development Fund Projects, the Amerindian Land Demarcation Projects, the Small Businesses and Micro-Enterprises Project – all of which are very important.
Singh noted that he was very concerned at the Opposition’s refusal to consider Government’s arguments in support of the affected projects and programmes.
He said, “I thought the explanations offered were imminently clear and I though the compelling merits of these projects would have influenced the Opposition in approving them. That was not to be.”
The Finance Minister opined then that the 2013 Budget remains a good menu of policies and interventions to take Guyana forward.
“None of the cuts were justified, it is very unfortunate that they persisted and perpetuated those cuts against the Guyanese people,” Singh said.

CJ RULING
At the time of the massive budget cuts, the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, ruled in favour of the Opposition on the basis that the National Assembly can amend the Budget by reducing expenditure.
While the Opposition was clearly elated, the Government resigned itself to respecting the Speaker’s ruling at the time.
In January, this year, the Chief Justice, Ian Chang, ruled that the National Assembly has no right to cut the national budget.
The Chief Justice handed down his decision in the High Court on January 29, with the Opposition planning to appeal the decision, citing errors in the ruling.
The Government of Guyana had taken the Opposition to court following the slashing of the 2012 National Budget by $20.8B claiming it was unconstitutional.
In the Preliminary Ruling given in June 2012, the CJ had ruled that the National Assembly had a role to either approve or disapprove of the National Estimate, not to cut them.
In January’s final ruling, the CJ maintained his sentiments made in the Preliminary Ruling.
“The Speaker unfortunately has ruled that the Standing Orders empower the Opposition to cut the Budget that the Chief Justice has ruled is wrong. The Standing Orders cannot overrule the Constitution of Guyana, they are not the law, they do not constitute a power, and therefore they cannot confer a power which does not exist in law,” Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, said.
He expressed the hope that this statement will guide treatment of the Budget for 2014 and onwards.
Pointing out that he was told that he was challenging the sovereignty of Parliamen when he filed the Budget 2012 court case, Minister Nandlall said that the ruling leaves him very pleased.
He said the Constitution confers upon the State the power and mechanisms to ensure that it maintains and enjoys that power.
In expressing their intent to appeal the ruling of the Chief Justice, the consensus from the combined Opposition is that the National Assembly has the power to make cuts to the national Budget, on the basis that the Parliamentary Standing Orders indicate so.
The Opposition has already indicated that they will proceed with cuts to the 2014 Budget, as is deemed fit.

(By Vanessa Narine)